In a lecture he delivered in Kano state yesterday, the
former CBN governor warned President Buhari to act
quickly so as not to end up like ex-President Goodluck
Ebele Jonathan.
The Emir said though he is a friend of the Buhari
administration, but he would not shy away from advising
the government when it was getting it wrong on the
economy.
Here are some key comments he made while delivering
his lecture yesterday.
“If we do not expand the economy through wise
investment, we can end up in classical Malthusian
situation.
If this government continues to behave the way the past
government behaved, we will end up where Jonathan
ended.”
“We are always blaming the past administration, but we
have also made mistakes in this administration. The
problem is that there is nothing we are facing today that
we did not know what happened. That is the truth.
“We made mistakes, many of them deliberate. We ignored
every single warning. Not building roads, not building
power and other necessary infrastructure that can boost
the economy and development of the country
“In 2010 when I was Governor of Central Bank, the
government increased minimum wage to N18, 000. I
protested, but they went ahead and borrowed money to
pay. In 2012, as Governor of CBN, I said that this is an
unsustainable wage bill. We need to reduce the size of
public service, which fell on deaf ears.
“I believe we have started retracing our steps and we
have to retrace our steps. If a policy is wrong, it is
wrong and it has to be changed.”
I’m a friend of this administration, but if they decide to
run Nigeria aground, I will become the opposition. You
are not good friends if you sit down with government
officials and don’t tell them the truth. I will continue to
say the truth.
“Nigeria must drop the habit of borrowing to pay salaries
and service recurrent expenditures.
“There is nothing happening today that we didn’t
forecast years ago because all actions have
consequences.
“Industrialization potentials of Northern Nigeria was
documented by Ahmadu Bello in 1962, 54 years after,
there’s nothing to show.
“We created billionaires from oil subsidies in the past.
We are making the same mistake with forex subsidies.
“As an emir, I can sit in my garden and make phone
calls to access $10million @ N197 per $ then sell it off
at nothing less than N300. With just a phone call, I’m
making a profit of over a billion naira. That is what
people are doing now.
“Any system that allows you sit in your garden and
make a billion naira without investing a kobo is a wrong
system.
“We created the recession we are in now and I hope the
President won’t make the mistakes Jonathan made.
“We are not being sincere when we say we are in a
recession because of the fall in oil prices. What
happened to other sectors?
“I understand it’s painful when we pay for expensive
fuel, but we must understand no system is perfect.
“Petroleum subsidy empowers a small group of criminals
rather than the poor masses it was meant for.
“If you must subsidise anything, please it should be for
production rather than consumption.
6 Ways To Get Nigeria’s Economy Out Of Recession
1. Federal Government must set the forex rate to
incentivise capital inflows, catalyse FDI and FDI funding;
2. FG must set interest rates at levels that deter capital
flight dollarisation;
3. FG must eliminate wasteful and abuse prone
subsidies;
4.must address failure in the power sector value chain
starting with the DISCOS;
5. Federal Government must digitize state land registries
and streamline relevant legislations; FG must re-priotise
public spending towards investment in human capital;
and lastly,
6. Federal Government must protect infant industries
specifically labour intensive manufacturing.
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