Nigeria Was Bankrupted By A Foolish Policy – Emir Lamido Sanusi Speaks Up

The Emir of Kano, HRH Muhammadu Sanusi II, has said that Nigeria is bankrupt as a result of a “foolish and unrealistic policy.”

Sanusi wondered why some people were now surprised that the economy was in recession when it was created by past government.

He stated this while speaking at the graduation lecture at the National Defence College on Deregulation of the Downstream Oil Sector and Nigeria’s Economic Development for Course 24 participants of the National Defence College,

“Nigeria is bankrupt, we are bankrupted by a policy that was foolish, that was unrealistic, and unsustainable and by all means our refusal over the years to listen.”

“We are surprised that we have an economic recession. We are actually surprised that we are in recession when we created the recession,’’ Sanusi said.

Sanusi applauded the federal government for deregulating the Petroleum sector, adding that the fuel subsidy was a huge scam.

Sanusi said: “The oil sector is only 15 per cent of GDP, yet oil accounts for 70 per cent of government revenues, oil accounts for 99 per cent of our foreign earnings.

“We got to a point when even though the numbers were staring us in the face, the entire nation was in denial. In 2009 when I became governor of Central Bank, the Nigerian government spent N291 billion that year subsidizing petroleum products.

“Two years later in 2011, N2.13 trillion was spent on the same subsidy, so has our population increased ten fold? It was very clear that this wasn’t oil subsidy; it was a scam.”

“The whole issue of fuel subsidy was set up to create opportunity for a few people to make money, and it was presented in a manner that convinced everybody it was for the poor.

“For every 30,000 metric tons of kerosene imported in the country, the federation account lost 20 million dollars. “We were importing 6, 7, 8 vessels per month for six years until this subsidy, the federation account was losing from 120 million to 160 million dollars every month.

“This is just kerosene, can you imagine a country losing $120 million every month on a non-existent subsidy on Kerosene, not PMS?

“This is how bad non-deregulation was because it allowed a small group of criminals to garner so much financial resources as to undermine every single institution that we had for checks and balances.”