A former Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi, has passed a damning verdict on former President Muhammadu Buhari saying he ignored expert advice and consequently crippled the economy.
Sanusi, who also served as governor of the Central Bank f Nigeria (CBN), stated this during a virtual religious programme on Sunday.
He said the Buhari administration treated the economy the way they wanted adding that sycophancy was the hallmark of Buhari’s eight years as president.
He said the “sycophants bought dollars at N400 and sold at N600” and “a boy who has no record of service has a private jet and owns houses in Dubai and England just because he is buying dollar at so and so a rate and selling them.”
He also said the previous government embarked on a spree of printing the naira “and the naira continued to depreciate.”
“There is too much naira in circulation because the CBN is printing the currency without restraint. The economy was poorly managed, and they were not willing to take advice.
“The last eight years, Nigeria led a false life; the government borrowed from within and without. About N30 trillion was borrowed from the Central Bank.
“All the revenue the country generated in the last few years couldn’t service debt. Debt service exceeded 100 per cent. Government borrowed to service debts. No country can grow this way. Time will come when one cannot borrow any more. Additionally there will be nothing to pay debts.
“Those writing, demanding that we speak on the current situation in the country; this is not the right time for me to speak. It was like a driver on the road driving recklessly despite a wise counsel telling him of a crater ahead. What will you tell after plunging the car into the hole? “People refused to listen to us then.”
He urged Nigerians to be patient with the Tinubu administration.
“I will never say Tinubu has pushed Nigeria into difficulty. I am not saying he is flawless or flawed. We will speak when he goes astray. The government can’t pay subsidies since it doesn’t have the means,” he said.
Sanusi also said economists with a fair sense of reasoning know that the current administration has made the right decision on fuel subsidy removal to save Nigeria from the bondage of debts dug by the past administration.
“The difficult situation Nigerians are facing is just the beginning (if the right decision is not put in place) because Nigeria is not exceptional; such situations happened in Germany, Zimbabwe, Uganda, and Venezuela.
“If I am to be fair and just to President Tinubu, he is not to blame for the current hardship; for eight years, we were living a fake lifestyle with huge foreign and domestic debts.
“I can’t join other Nigerians criticising Tinubu on the current economic hardship, and I am not saying he is a saint free from wrongdoing, but in this current economic situation, President Tinubu is not to be blamed. I will also speak if I see any wrong economic policy of the Tinubu administration in the future.
“It’s injustice for anyone to blame the Tinubu administration for the current economic hardship because there is no other alternative than the removal of the fuel subsidy. After all, Nigeria cannot even afford to pay the subsidy,” he declared.
