Atedo Peterside to Boycott CBN’s Roundtable over Sanusi’s Dethronement

The founder of Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc, Mr. Atedo Peterside, has said he will not attend a forum organised by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) because he is displeased with the dethronement of Muhammadu Sanusi II as Emir of Kano.

In a letter sent to the Governor of CBN, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, Peterside said he cannot hide his displeasure at Sanusi’s deposition and eventual banishment from Kano.

“I received an invitation, at short notice, to be a panelist at a CBN consultative roundtable session taking place in Abuja tomorrow. Whilst thanking you for the invitation, I believe the correct thing for me to do is to respectfully decline to participate,” he wrote.

“My refusal to join you has more to do with the monumental events that took place yesterday viz the removal of the emir of Kano from office and the release of information that purportedly seeks to exile him and restrict his movements or confine them to a little known enclave in Nasarawa State.”

Peterside said he attended the commonwealth service that held in Westminster Abbey on Monday where he was reminded of “what can go right when we embrace the forces of modernity while recognising and upholding our proud cultural heritage”.

“At the exact same time, I was distracted by disturbing news from Kano yesterday, which confirmed what can go wrong, when those in authority pay lip service to the Nigerian constitution and then proceed to violate the fundamental freedoms that it guarantees each individual because they prefer to cling to practices like exile which they learnt from colonial masters and the military. These practices have no place in a democratic dispensation.”