Sanusi Faults Buhari’s Economic Model, Says FG Lacks Right Policies

April 6, 2017

The Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi ll, on Wednesday, faulted the present administration’s economic model, saying it would not work.

Sanusi, who spoke at the Kaduna State Economic Summit in Kaduna, the state capital, also berated northern leaders, saying the North-West and the North-East remained the poorest parts of the world.

The monarch, who spoke on the theme ‘Promoting investments in the midst of economic challenges’, said the North, as a region, constituted the highest of the nation’s population, but lacked the necessary indices for progress.

Sanusi, a former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, said the Federal Government was borrowing unsustainably.

He noted that currently, Nigeria was spending 66 per cent of its revenues to pay interests on debts, saying such a model would not work.

Sanusi stated, “The Federal Government of Nigeria is spending 66 per cent of its revenues on interests on debts, which means only 34 per cent of revenues is available for capital and recurrent expenditures.

“That model cannot work. If you look at the 2017 budget of the Federal Government, I sometimes wonder what Nigerian economists are doing? In the 2017 budget presented by the Federal Government, the amount earmarked for debt servicing is in excess of the entire non-oil revenue of the Federal Government, but that is not the problem. The problem is that it is a budget that is even going for more debts.”

He wondered when the Federal Government would stop borrowing if the government was spending 66 per cent of its revenues to pay interests on debts.

The emir said government at all levels should realise that borrowing had reached its limit and should therefore look for ways to attract investments.

“Growth can only come from investments. It cannot come from consumption.  It cannot come from government balance sheet. It cannot come from borrowing because you cannot borrow unsustainably,” he said.