N1.4tr spending on fuel subsidy, a misallocation of resources - Emir Sanusi

The Emir of Kano, Malam Muhammadu Sanusi II, has condemned the continued fuel subsidy spending by the Buhari administration, saying it is misallocation of scarce resources.

The emir who spoke at the 2018 Annual Meetings of the African Development Bank Group in Busan, Korea themed ‘Accelerating Africa’s Industrialization’, said the monies could be better spent on education, health and industrialization.

“Nigeria in the past three years has spent N1.4trn on petroleum subsidies. This was one of the reasons I was fired. We were spending at one time about $6bn between petroleum subsidies and all sorts of leakages. And when you think that someone who is faced with challenges of industrialization, power, agriculture, irrigation, education, health care, maternal mortality and infant mortality actually thinks that his priority is to spend money on petroleum subsidies, you’ve got to ask questions,” he said.

“Imagine what a trillion naira would have done for industries, health, education etc and this has been going on for decades,” he said adding that there is so much misallocation of resources across Africa.

So it’s not so much about raising money but doing the right thing, he noted.

Emir Sanusi also said that before African governments even raised taxes, they should account for what they’ve already raised.

On trade, he said African countries should trade as a block to make impact.

“Every African country should sign to that trade policy. If we can have a way of taking Africa as a block and negotiating with the rest of the world, we will be much better off than each country trying to develop its trade policy. The borders are just too porous,” he observed.

He also said all the agreements with the World Trade Organization were skewed against smaller countries. “There is nothing like a level playing field in world trade.”

On diversification, he said we need to create externalities and diversities to enable those who don’t have the resources of the likes of Dangote to go into industries leveraging on our comparative advantage. This is where some countries like Ethiopia have done extremely well in coffee and cotton he observed.