Emir Sanusi and President Buhari
Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi has once again called on President
Buhari to remove fuel subsidy to avoid the country going bankrupt.
Emir Sanusi who is well known for his tough comments on national
issues declared the Buhari administration’s economic policies as
unfavourable, adding that Nigeria is on the threshold of bankruptcy.
He identified the bad economic policies of the Buhari
administration to include subsidizing petroleum products, electricity
tariffs and using 70 percent of the country’s revenue to service debt.
Sanusi made these revelations at the ongoing 3rd National Treasury
Workshop organized by the office of the Accountant General of the
Federation at Coronation Hall, Government House, Kano State where he
advised Buhari to cancel subsidy in petroleum and electricity tariffs if
the economy must stabilize.
“The country is Bankrupt and we are heading to bankruptcy. What
happened is that the Federal Government do pay petroleum subsidy, pay
electricity tariff subsidy, and if there is rise in interest rates,
Federal Government pays.
What is more life-threatening than subsidy that we have to
sacrifice education, health sector and infrastructure for us to have
cheap petroleum. If truly President Buhari is fighting poverty, he
should remove the risk on the national financial sector and stop the
subsidy regime which is fraudulent.”
He challenged President Buhari to tell Nigerians the fact about the
economic situation and also act quickly on it because the nation is
already bankrupt.
“Since I have decided to come here, you have to accept what I
have said here. And please, if you do not want to hear the truth, never
invite me. So let us talk about the state of public finance in Nigeria.
We have a number of very difficult decisions that we must make, and we
should face the reality. His Excellency, the President said in his
inaugural speech that his government would like to lift 100 million
people out of poverty, it was a speech that was well received not only
in this country, but world-wide.
“The number of people living with poverty in Nigeria are
frightening. By 2050, 85 percent of those living in extreme poverty in
the world will be from the African continent. And Nigeria and the
Democratic Republic of Congo will take the lead. Two days ago, I read
that the percentage of government revenue going to debt services has
risen to 70 percent.
”These numbers are not lying. They are public numbers. I read
them in the newspapers. When you are spending 70 percent of your revenue
on debt services, then you are managing 30 percent. And then, you
continue subsidizing petroleum products; and spending N1.5 trillion per
annum on petroleum subsidy! And then we are subsidizing electricity
tariff. And maybe, you have to borrow from the capital market or the
Central Bank of Nigeria to service the shortfall in the electricity
tariff, where is the money to pay salaries, where is the money for
education, where are other government projects.”
Sanusi lamented that for 30 years, successive governments have had
this project called petroleum subsidy, insisting that this is the right
time to stop it so as to save the nation’s economy.