Emir Sanusi asked President Buhari not to Subsidies Forex as Goodlluck Jonathan did on Oil Subsidies

The Emir of Kano, Alhaji Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, has cautioned the Muhamadu Buhari-led Government against making the mistakes of his predecessors. He further said the economic quagmire the country currently finds itself was not accidental, but a consequence poor management.

Emir Mohammed Sanusi II made the declaration at the 15th Joint Planning Board and National Council of Development Planning Matters in Kano State, with the theme: “National Strategic Planning as a Vehicle for Attainment of #SDGs in Nigeria”.

In his presentation titled: “The Golden Decade – Africa Rising”, the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) stated that meaningful development cannot be engendered if the country doesn’t eschew the habit of borrowing to pay salaries and service recurrent expenditures.

Stating that “all actions have consequences”, Emir Sanusi called on President Buhari not to toe the path of the Goodlluck Jonathan administration by embarking on Forex Subsidies.

“We created billionaires from Oil Subsidies in the past. We are making the same mistake with Forex Subsidy,” he said in an apparent reference to the dual exchange rates actually operational at the CBN.

“As an Emir, I can seat in my garden and make phone calls to access $10 million at N197/$ and then sell it off at nothing less than N300,” he said, before adding that any such system is a wrong system.

He went further to blame the present recession bedeviling the country on the inability to diversify the economy. An inability caused in part by the subsidy regime which, according to him, “empowers a small group of criminals rather than the poor masses it was meant for.”

While calling on the Federal Government to eliminate “wasteful and abuse-prone subsidies” he said “If you must subsidize anything, please it should be for production rather than consumption.”

The Emir, however, sees light at the end of the tunnel for Nigeria, although he stressed that the FG must set Forex rates to incentivize capital inflows and catalyse Foreign direct investment, as well as protect labour intensive manufacturing industries, and increase capital expenditure.