Former Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, Mohammed Sanusi, has said it is an injustice to blame the administration of President Bola Tinubu for the current economic hardship the country is facing.
Sanusi said the country is battling a failing economy due to
mismanaged economic policies of the past eight years.
He stated this while speaking virtually on Sunday at a
religious event in Abuja.
He said he would not join those who are bent on criticising Tinubu over the current economic challenges in the country.
Sanusi said, “I have been, over the years, talking about the
pending crisis ahead of the current economic hardship. Any economist who has
studied monetary policy in the last eight years knows that Nigerians will fall
into this difficult situation.
“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.
“The previous administration turned adamant about our appeal
for corrective measures (on the economic policy). I have said in the presence
of the now sitting president in Kaduna state, any politician who tells you that
things will be easy, don’t vote for him because he is lying. People merely
dismissed my advisory as a political statement.
“If I am to be fair and just to President Bola Tinubu, he is
not to blame for the current hardship; for eight years, we were living a fake
lifestyle with huge debt from foreign and domestic debts. The Central Bank of
Nigeria owes over N30 trillion, which resulted in debt service surpassing 100
percent.
“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, Stated.
He added that Tinubu’s decision to remove fuel subsidy
should be applauded.
He said, “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. In the last eight years, the Central Bank
continued to print more money, 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 are not willing to
take advice; in the last eight years, apart from sycophancy, nothing has been
done; those sycophants are those buying the dollar at the rate of N400 and
selling it at the rate of N600 to N700.
“A boy who has no record of service has a private jet and
owns houses in Dubai and England just because he is buying dollars at so a rate
and selling them.
“I can only plead with the people to endure the hardship,
and those who have the means to help the downtrodden should do so.
“I am also pleading with commoners to live according to
their earnings; we must not peg our lives above our earnings in this difficult
situation where people are looking for what to eat.”
During his inaugural speech in 2023 after the general
elections, Tinubu announced the removal of fuel subsidy.
He stated that the country could no longer maintain it,
noting that the trillions of naira yearly spent to sustain the subsidy were
meant to better the healthcare and transportation sector, schools, housing, and
national security, among others.
However, following the removal, Nigerians had been thrown
into hardship from the soaring cost of food to increased drug prices.
This prompted many citizens in some states like Kano, Osun
and Niger to protest against the high cost of food items and other essential
commodities.
The protesters claimed that the harsh economic situation has
caused untold hardship to the masses in the state.
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