By Abdullahi Dahiru
There is nothing of the current economic hardship we are witnessing that some eminent Nigerian economists have not predicted. Two former CBN governors Charles Soludo and Sarki Sanusi have repeatedly warned previous governments against some poor economic policies that were the major causes of the economic problems we are witnessing now.
President Obasanjo performed credibly well. In 2005, Nigeria’s foreign debt was $36billion. He secured a debt relief of about $18 billion from international creditors like the Paris and London clubs after settling over $12billion. Then Nigeria’s foreign reserve started growing up.
President Yaradua built the foreign reserve to all time high of $60billion. Nigeria’s foreign debt under him was less than $3billion.
Nigeria started accumulating foreign debt again under President Jonathan. At that time the then CBN governor Sanusi started drawing the attention of the government to that. He recommended removal of fuel subsidy and drew the attention of the government to the leakages in Nigeria’s oil company NNPC. He accused NNPC of not remitting all the money Nigeria was getting from the sale of crude oil into government coffers. That nettled the then President Jonathan who accused Sanusi of insubordination and ‘financial recklessness’ as CBN governor. Sanusi was subsequently removed from the office of CBN governor for blowing the whistle on corruption in NNPC.
Buhari became President when Sanusi was already Emir of Kano. Buhari continued to borrow money from foreign creditors. Sarki Sanusi repeatedly advised Buhari’s government against collecting foreign loans. He recommended the removal of petrol subsidy. He cautioned the CBN against surpassing the recommended 5% of previous year’s revenue as ways and means advances. He cautioned CBN against printing money without revenue to back it. Again, that became a problem for him. The Kano state and federal governments accused him of public criticism of government economic policies instead of private advice to the President and senior government officials. When Kano state government was trying to remove him from the throne of emir of Kano, the federal government looked the other way since one of its critics was going to be punished. Some federal agencies were even utilized for that purpose.
Buhari inherited foreign debt burden of $7.3billion and it ballooned to over $40billion under him. He was borrowing money to fund him government and pay petrol subsidies. The debt burden under Buhari was so outrageous that almost all earnings of the government goes into servicing debts. Government was servicing debt and taking more loans similar to what Hausa people call ‘biyan bashin daddawar kauye’.
President Obasanjo went after governor Alamasheigha who was arrested in London airport for laundering foreign currency and subsequently jumped bail from a British court. Alamasheigha was subsequently impeached. When governor Ganduje was seen in a video collecting kickback from contractors, what did Buhari did? He did nothing. Corruption became so pervasive under him that CBN staff forged his signature to siphon money. There were many other cases of monumental heists under him but yet he did almost nothing to either punish the offenders or stop the haemorrhage.
When Tinubu became President he announced removal of petrol subsidy and liberalization of foreign exchange. Nigeria was thrown into further economic turmoil.
Now some Nigerians especially many Northerners are accusing the advocates of the economic policies of Tinubu administration as the people that recommended government to throw them into the current economic hardship because of their ‘insensitivity’ and ‘capitalistic’ mindsets. These people are saying why not the experts recommend tackling of corruption as a remedy? Didn’t Sanusi lose two coveted positions for blowing the whistle on corruption? The first case was his accusation that NNPC was not remitting money from the sale of crude oil. The second case was his opposition to Kano state governor Ganduje taking $1.8billion loan to construct a light rail in Kano metropolis.
I am not trying to shield Tinubu from criticism of his economic policies. The truth is that he inherited a bad economy from several years of mismanagement. What are his options? I really don’t know.
The truth is that Nigerian scenario is similar to a person that sustained a fracture in the leg. He went to a traditional healer who unskillfully repaired it. The leg became gangrenous. Any sound orthopaedic surgeon will recommend amputation of the gangrenous leg. The leg was amputated. The amputee then blamed the orthopaedic surgeon for his travails not his previous decision.
