Emir of Kano to Buhari: Your government may end up like Jonathan’s
Emir of Kano to Buhari: Your government may end up like Jonathan’s
The Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi,
has warned President Muhammadu
Buhari to avoid repeating the mistakes
made by former President Goodluck
Jonathan so his administration does
not end up in infamy like that of his
predecessor.
The former governor of the Central
Bank of Nigeria also warned the
government against continuing to
blame previous administrations for the
nation’s woes, saying what was
important was for the administration to
concentrate on putting the nation back
on the path of progress.
The emir gave the warning on
Wednesday while delivering a paper
entitled, “Nigeria In Search Of New
Growth model” at the 15th meeting of
the Joint Planning Board and National
Council on Development Planning.
Mr. Buhari succeeded Mr. Jonathan on
May 29, 2015.
“If this government continues to behave
the way the last government behaved,
we will end up where Jonathan ended,”
the former CBN governor said. “You
may not like it but that is the truth. You
have to listen.
“You don’t have to be an economist to
know that any system that allows you
to sit in your garden, and with a
telephone call, make one billion naira
without investing a kobo, that system is
wrong. It is unsustainable.
“And just so we are not always blaming
the previous administration. We have
also made mistakes in this
administration. We have started
retracing our steps or we have to
retrace those steps.
“And if we fall into the same holes that
we fell into the last time where the
government is always right… If a policy
is wrong, it is wrong. Nothing will make
it right and it has to be changed.”
Mr. Sanusi said there were many
voodoo economists parading around
the administration and advising the
government.
“And many of them are not
economists,” the Emir said. “They are
demagogues.”
“Look, I’m not going to change. I am
never going to be political. I will never
tell people what they like to hear. There
is nothing we are facing today that we
did not know will happen. That is the
truth. We made mistakes, many of them
deliberate. We ignored every single
warning.
“If you take a brand new car, and give
a driver who doesn’t have a license to
drive it and you have an accident, you
really can’t say you are surprised
unless you are some kind of idiot.”
The Emir said he would like to know
those advising the present government
so he could talk to the advisers
themselves.
Mr. Sanusi blamed past federal
administrations for failing to diversify
the nation’s economy during the oil
boom, saying Mr. Buhari should not
make the same mistakes.
He specifically accused Mr. Jonathan of
refusing advice given to him on how to
turn the economy around.
Warnings of impending economic doom
were also ignored by the former
president, Mr. Sanusi said.
The traditional ruler expressed concern
that the Buhari administration was
toeing the same path like the Jonathan
government.
“In a situation where we cannot process
tomato. Tomato paste is being imported
from China. It is sad,” he said.
He said there was urgent need for the
country to return to the drawing board
on the deepening and expansion of the
economy.
“If we do not expand the economy
through wise investment, we can end up
in classical Malthusian situation,” he
said.
Mr. Sanusi restated his support for the
removal of subsidy on petroleum
products, saying only a few people were
reaping from the system to achieve
their selfish ends.
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