Emir Sanusi Blames NNPC for Nigeria's Economic Woes
The Emir of Kano, Mallam Muhammad Sanusi had added his voice to those of teeming Nigerians on the need to revitalized Nigerian economy by putting an end to corruption. The emir made this known while addressing President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday, the 13th of August.
He urged the president to block any leakage existing in Nigeria’s revenue sources towards putting an end to corruption. He insisted that ordinary probe would not be sufficient to curb corruption, but the president must go a step further by preventing further occurrence of corrupt practices and this would represented the most effective way to win the anti-corruption crusade of the federal government.
The former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria made this public declaration during the Federal Government Budget Symposium that was held in Lagos yesterday where he was one of the guest speakers. Mallam Sanusi emphasized that majority of the corrupt practices perpetrated in Nigeria came mainly from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.
He insisted that the poor management of the NNPC and its financing had led to the economic setback being experienced by Nigeria today. He insisted that the government would never be able to meet with even the basic obligations of government to the people if the government fails to properly track oil revenue, irrespective of how perfect the budget is.
The Emir of Kano insisted that government should first investigate why they have such low revenue before they make the decision to borrow money, considering the fact that the country’s GDP is expected to be high. He made comments about the oil sector and also gave suggestions on how the government can go about dealing with the problem.
He blamed most of the problems of the present day Nigeria on the overdependence on crude oil revenue. He claimed things would have been better if there had been adequate structural reform.
He equally blamed irregular budget cycle, high cost of governance, fiscal indiscipline, weak structures, implementation process and very poor budgeting ethics for the many woes bedeviling the country’s economic woe. Until something is done about these problems, he insisted Nigeria would always record poor economic performance. He lamented the spate of the country regarding the lack of correlation between what is generated and what is spent.
He further stated that the most desired restructure of the economy can only become reality if revenue generated is fixed and leakages are blocked. He claimed that subsidy provides corruption opportunities and that it must be stopped as a way forward in the fight against corruption.
He condemned the decision of the NNPC to swap crude oil, stating that it is not done by any country unless the country is under economic sanction like Iran, who could not sell their oil on international market and had to swap for other needs. He said a nation can only swap oil if the quality of oil they produce is very low. He said Nigeria has no reason to swap oil, considering the top quality of the oil produced by the country.
By Anthony Olawale Ojo
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