The 16th Emir of Kano and former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Muhammadu Sanusi II, has queried the rationale behind borrowings after the removal of petrol subsidy by the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration.
Speaking in Abuja yesterday at the Oxford Global Think Tank Leadership Conference and Book Launch, the emir said the removal of fuel subsidy had led to increased revenue.
Sanusi commended Tinubu’s administration for removing fuel subsidy and unifying exchange rates, describing both as “painful but necessary steps He, however, cautioned that the reforms would fail unless matched with fiscal discipline and transparent spending. “If you stop paying subsidies but continue borrowing more, it means you’ve filled one hole only to dig another.
The real challenge now is the quality of government spending and the management of the revenues saved,” he said.Sanusi, who served as CBN governor between 2009 and 2014, said Nigeria’s current economic woes were the consequence of years of policy inconsistency and populist politics.
In 2012, we warned that the subsidy was unsustainable, but politics took over. Now, the same people who led protests against it have inherited the problem and had no choice but to do the right thing,” he said.
He applauded the professionalism of the current economic team for the steps taken to stabilise inflation and reduce exchange rate volatility, but insisted that government waste must be urgently curtailed.
