Economy: Sanusi says Buhari needs to get things right

Former governor of Central Bank, and now Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, has warned President Muhammadu Buhari to avoid repeating the mistakes made by former President Goodluck Jonathan so his administration does not end up in infamy like that of his predecessor.
The emir gave the warning on Wednesday while delivering a paper entitled, “Nigeria In Search Of New Growth model” at the 15th meeting of the Joint Planning Board and National Council on Development Planning.
“If this government continues to behave the way the last government behaved, we will end up where Jonathan ended,” the former CBN governor said. “You may not like it but that is the truth. You have to listen.
“You don’t have to be an economist to know that any system that allows you to sit in your garden, and with a telephone call, make one billion naira without investing a kobo, that system is wrong. It is unsustainable.
According to Sanusi, most people advising the president are not Economic experts as being touted. He said “many of them are not economists, they are demagogues.
“Look, I’m not going to change. I am never going to be political. I will never tell people what they like to hear. There is nothing we are facing today that we did not know will happen. That is the truth. We made mistakes, many of them deliberate. We ignored every single warning.
“If you take a brand new car, and give a driver who doesn’t have a license to drive it and you have an accident, you really can’t say you are surprised unless you are some kind of idiot.”
The Emir said he would like to know those advising the present government so he could talk to the advisers themselves.
Sanusi blamed past federal administrations for failing to diversify the nation’s economy during the oil boom, saying Mr. Buhari should not make the same mistakes.
He specifically accused Mr. Jonathan of refusing advice given to him on how to turn the economy around.
Warnings of impending economic doom were also ignored by the former president, Mr. Sanusi said.
The traditional ruler expressed concern that the Buhari administration was toeing the same path like the Jonathan government.
“In a situation where we cannot process tomato. Tomato paste is being imported from China. It is sad,” he said.
He said there was urgent need for the country to return to the drawing board on the deepening and expansion of the economy.
“If we do not expand the economy through wise investment, we can end up in classical Malthusian situation,” he said.