Don’t treat critics as enemies, Sanusi tells FG

Emir of Kano, Alhaji Muhammadu Sanusi II, has warned the Federal Government against treating every comment about governance as an attack on President Bola Tinubu.

Speaking virtually to the audience at the Oxford Global Think Tank Leadership Conference, organised by the Oxford Global Think Tank, on Tuesday, Sanusi advised the government to tolerate constructive criticisims.

“It’s not every time people talk about poverty or talk about difficulty that they’re just enemies of the government or making an attack on the president. That is not how to respond to economic distress,” he said.

• Cristiano Ronaldo Jr earns first Portugal Under-17 call-up
• EPL: Gerrard names three clubs capable of challenging Arsenal for League title

The Emir also raised concerns about the size of government expenditure, saying Nigeria could not pursue fiscal consolidation while continuing to spend without restraint.

He said the World Bank had pointed out that in the first half of this year Nigeria’s debt service consumed 124 per cent of federal government revenue. BuyMaps

Sanusi warned that the country needed to urgently address the sustainability of its debt and pursue structural reforms that had not yet been made.

The monarch said reform must go beyond removing fuel subsidies and liberalising the exchange rate, describing it as a comprehensive package that needed to address many other areas.

He said government needed to make clear spending priorities, choosing between roads, electricity, agriculture, and technology based on available resources.

The former CBN boss said every $10 billion spent on roads was $10 billion taken away from electricity and agriculture, stressing the need for deliberate choices.

Sanusi acknowledged that Tinubu’s economic reforms had produced measurable progress, citing improvements in GDP growth, inflation, and foreign reserves.

Sanusi said GDP growth has risen from an average of 0.9 per cent under the previous administration to 4.5 per cent, describing the change as progress that deserved recognition.

“I think moving from an average growth rate of 0.9 per cent to 4.5 per cent is progress. Moving from inflation of over 30 per cent to 14.5 per cent is progress.”

“Moving from the point where in 2023 the central bank’s reserves were maybe negative to where we are now having reserves of $55 billion is progress.”

He, however, stressed that issues such as poverty, hunger, maternal mortality, malnutrition, education and healthcare remained serious concerns that the reforms has not yet addressed.

Sanusi said the government should have designed social safety net policies to soften the impact of reforms on vulnerable Nigerians from the beginning.