N1.5trn oil subsidy fraudulent, says Emir of Kano

 The Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi ii, has again taken the Government of President Muhammadu Buhari to cleaners over its continued payment of Petroleum Subsidy amounting to N1.5 trillion. The monarch described it as “fraudulent” and said it would lead the country to bankruptcy.

The Emir, who was speaking during the ongoing 3rd National Treasury Workshop of the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation in Kano, said: ” I owe my conscience and my country to speak the truth and if you don’t want me speak the truth, you should stop inviting me.”

Sanusi noted: “For 30 years, we are in this fallacy called petroleum subsidies but it is not a subsidy but a hedge because as it is, Nigeria had to borrow from Capital Market and CBN to continue to pay subsidy”

He said: “But we don’t call it a fraud because we knew the implications.

Today, Nigeria is the only country whose Balance sheets does not benefit our increased Domestic Product, and what happens in Nigeria is that if there is a global rise in Petroleum prices, we pay more and if there is decline, we pay less. Is this sustainable?”

Sanusi added that in 2011 when he was CBN Governor, Nigeria made $16 billion from Petroleum sales, and spent $8 billion importing Petroleum and spent another $8.2 billion subsidizing the product. “100 per cent what we made from Petroleum goes back to Petroleum sector. Is this sustainable?”

The Emir noted that the country is heading towards bankruptcy.

“What happens is that Federal Government do pay subsidy, pays electricity tariff subsidy, and if there is rise in interest rates Federal Government pays. What is more life threatening than subsidy is that we have to sacrifice education, health sector and infrastructure for us to have cheap petroleum.”

He said: “If truly President Buhari is fighting poverty, he should remove the risk on the national financial sector and stop the subsidy regime which is fraudulent.”

Sanusi explained that President Muhammadu Buhari must tell Nigerians the facts about the economic situation and also act quickly on it because the nation is already bankrupted.

Speaking to the participants at the workshop who are treasurers from across the Federation, Sanusi said: “We need to ask these questions; why are there high mortality rates, malnutrition, high rate of out of school children among others while the nation treasury goes to petroleum sector?”

He noted that in 2016, “we were told that we are consuming 28 million liters of Petroleum per day and just few weeks ago, we were told it has gone up to 60 million liters daily. What goes wrong? “, the Emir queried.

He added: “So let us talk about the state of public finance in Nigeria. We have a number of very difficult decisions that we must make, and we should face the reality.

The President said in his inaugural speech that his government would like to lift 100 million people out of poverty. It was a speech that was well received not only in this country, but the world-wide.”

“The number of people living with poverty in Nigeria are frightening. By 2050, 85 per cent of those living in extreme poverty in the world will be from the African continent. And Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo will take the lead.

“Two days ago, I read that the percentage of government revenue going to debt services has risen to 70 per cent.

“These numbers are not lying. They are public numbers. I read them in the newspapers. When you are spending 70 per cent of your revenue on debt services, then you are managing 30 per cent.

Speaking in the same vein, the acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ibrahim Magu, described corruption as the bane of the country’s economic woes.

Magu, therefore called on the Federal and state Accountant-Generals to take the lead in the fight against corruption, adding that they must insist the right thing must be done in their offices.

According to him: “Transparency and accountability are twin sisters of good governance. They are the tools to tackle corruption. It is true that we can leave a good legacy.”