CBN Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi Replies Critics

Central Bank of Nigeria Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi (SLS) responds to some Internet Inquiries on fuel subsidy and wrote: If you will patiently read this mail to the end you will understand my position. I won't be able to repeat everything I have said over the past few years on fuel subsidy, but in summary; Fraud like theft thrives not only because of the existence of greed and benefit but of opportunity. Place yourself in

the shoes of the average nigerian "businessman" or "entrepreneur"-polite euphemisms for rent seeking parasites.

You establish an elcee for importing 20,000MT of PMS and the PPPRA says this is at a landed cost of N145 for example per litre. So u know that for every litre in that vessel you will get at least N85 as subsidy. Now you have a number of "possiblities":

1. You can off load 5,000 MT and bribe customs and other officials to sign papers confirming u offloaded 20k MT. Then do the same across the chain with a paper trail showing you delivered 20k MT to a tank farm, and maybe even that u transported it to Maiduguri entitling you to a share of the price equalization fund. Maybe for N20-N30 per litre u bribe all those who sign the papers. The 15k MT you take to Benin or Ghana or Cameroun and sell at market price thus makin an additional "profit" of N55/ltr on 15,000MT!

2 you can just forge documents and have them stamped without bringing in anything and collect the subsidy-PPPRA pays based on DOCUMENTS.

3 you can bring in the fuel, load on tankers, sell some at N65N some at 80 some at 100 some across the land borders.

You can do all this and no one can catch it or prove it because somebody was paid to sign off on docs. And with a high enough margin there is too much temptation to be resisted and firepower for bribing officials.

When I spoke to the house of reps I told them why I was suspecting fraud. It starts from PPPRA "allocations" based on "capacity". You will find a company like Mobil with capacity for say 60,000 MT and a relatively unknown name with a capacity of say 90k MT. Red alert number 1.

Although PPPRA is supposed to give license only to marketers with a national distribution network you see names of companies where you have never seen a filling station in their name.

I was a chief risk officer in UBA and in FBN for many years approving loans so I know the name of every big player in every industry that nigerian banks lend to as these are among the biggest banks in the country. I see names on the list I don't recognise either from portfolios. I looked at or industry studies over the years. Red alert number 2.

I studied the papers presented to PPPRA in a short period in 2010 (I won't tell you how I got them!). And I was surprised that on some days over 10 vessels are said to have discharged cargo in lagos on the same day-clearly the same officers stamping and "verifying" that the vessels were SEEN. Is it really realistic that on the same day 13-15 vessels can discharge in Lagos? Red alert number 3.

Why was I interested in fuel marketing. Because the two sectors that led to the near collapse of the banking industry were capital markets and oil marketing. I am not giving any confidential info out as AMCON MD has already disclosed publicly that two companies alone-zenon and AP-owned by the same businessman owed the nigerian banking industry N220b. And we all saw the amount of subsidy paid to those companies published by BusinessDay.

So money had been taken, subsidy had been collected but loans were not repaid, and we couldn't see the money either as product in tank farms or in fuel stations or credit sales. So I became obsessed with trying to understand how that industry operated and the more I saw the more I hated it and I started the war against subsidies.

It is actually better to do a direct cash payout or add a line item to salaries called petroleum support or transport allowance capped at say N300b p/a than to keep paying it. It goes to pay middle men, rent-seekers and corrupt officers and there is no amount of preaching that will stop this fraud so long as the policy is so badly defined.

Everytime oil price goes up and everytime the naira is devalued and everytime the quantity of imports increases the "subsidy" and thus the "rent" increases and there is more gravy to go round. So every year we "import" more and more and deplete our reserves, and the government borrows more and more to pay for subsidy and the beneficiaries are a smal group of marketers, govt officials and neighbouring countries which get fuel without losing forex! And while a person who applies intelligence can see what is happening you can't prove it in a court of law. If the man says he sighted the vessel and it was 20kMT you have to accept it. It was a year ago!

So for two years I have been convinced that this thing is a scam and that it cannot be stopped because the entire controls have been compromised. NNPC sells domestic crude, Pays whatever subsidy PPPRA says and then gives the balance after JVC to the federation account. And while fani kayode is right to speak up, the truth is that it was obasanjo who first subverted the process by allowing NNPC to make the deductions before paying into federation account. Because once money goes into that account it is to be shared among 3 tiers of government so strictly speaking the deductions have always been unconstitutional as the FG was paying subsidy on behalf of itself and state and LGs without their approval.

So yes, I am willing to take all the criticism and labels and be unpopular but this has to stop and govt can find other ways of alleviating pain. Iran removed subsidies and started cash transfers directly to the poor. It is up to fiscal authorities to figure out safety nets but from where I sit and what I know this decision is not only correct but necessary and overdue. I also confirm that I have revealed nothing here I haven't spoken about before in public and it is just that Nigerians never listen!

I am not complaining about insults I am used to that. I just believe that an insult is not an argument and when people resort to personal abuse they have run out of logic.

But to then go beyond me and extend it to my dead grandfather and his "descendants" ie my late father his siblings etc I think goes beyond the pale. As a Nigerian-and as an economist- I can take a position on economic matters and this position is one I have had for years even before coming in to the central bank.

I have also explained the position on several occasions and criticised government for not doing this before. In 2010 at a public hearing in the House of Reps on the 25% saga I alerted the nation of what I considered a potential big scam around subsidies and urged for its removal. No one paid attention. The economics is very clear to me. That it is unpopular is also understandable.

The British public is unhappy with Tory budget cuts. The Greeks went on riot over austerity. Italian parliamentarians came to blows before Berlusconi was thrown out of office. The US congress is yet to approve Obamas tax increases.

Economic decisions-by definition-ALWAYS must involve a cost or an opportunity cost since for them to qualify as economic they must involve a choice in resource allocation among competing uses. An enlightened debate is one that weighs the pros and cons of removing subsidy and continuing with it.

Removing it has costs in terms of nigerians paying more for PMS-which by the way is not the fuel for genrators, power plants, production facilities, heavy duty goods transportation trucks and even luxury buses.

It is fuel used by the middle class and car owners to drove around town and from city to city not to employ workers and produce goods and services. Diesel which is critical to manufacturing and employment creation is not subsidized as the subsidy was removed years ago by obasanjo. Nigerians said nothing then because it was blue collar workers that got retrenched by factories.

Those speaking now on the internet and facebook and twitter and newspapers are not workers but middle class elite who use PMS in their smart cars so let's stop all the ideological pretence. This is not about elite and masses but an intra-elite discourse.

I will summarise the issues and I write as a Nigerrian economist and public intellectual not as a public servant:

1. I am a strong advocate for subsidies if they are for production and not consumption, and if they benefit the poor and not middle men and rent seekers. The US government subsidizes cotton and wheat farmers and nigeria spends its reserves importing wheat from america and keeping american farmers employed. The OECD countried pay subsidies to cattle farmers. Today Promasidor imports powdered milk from New Zealand and packages in nigeria using our foreign exchange while we have cattle. WAMCO imports milk from the UK and adds water and tins it and calls it "production" of Peak milk. We use our forex to import petroleum products and keep refineries and jobs open in europe. Meanwhile precisely because of market distortions there can be no private sector investment in refineries since no one can make profit seling at the regulated price unless we are going to provide private refineries with crude for next to nothing. Certainly no one can purchase crude at market price, refine it and sell at N65 without huge losses so this explains why there are no private refineries.

2. what I mention above is at the heart of the problem with government economic policy which needs to be changed. The economy since SAP is one that supports imported consumption and not local production, perpetuating dependency, non inclusive growth and insecurity. Why is it that the economy is growing at 7pct annually but the people are getting poorer. Because growth gains are not evenly distributed. Personal income is skewed towards people in the oil industry, telecomms, high finance, stock market, real estate and yes civil servants and politicians who feed on corruption. We produce crude oil but import petroleum products (today the UKs highest exports to nigeria are petroleum products). We have a large cotton belt but import textiles from china (thus keeping their subsidized factories open and jobs in china). We are the world's number 1 producer of cassava but import cassava starch from europe. We have a huge tomato belt in kadawa, jigawa and chad basin but are the world's largest importer of tomato paste-from China and Italy. We can produce rice but we import rice from Thailand and India-most of it from grain reserves that have been in stock for over 5

3. If above is clear then it is evident that this trajectory can only lead to disaster. We will continue to spend our resources promoting growth and employment in our trading partners. Terms of trade shift against us, we can only have foreign reserves because by the good grace of God we have Oil which will be exhausted soon and with new discoveries may become so cheap it loses value. We don't create any value added jobs as the only real production is peasant farming. Oill, telecomms, finance and real estate are not employment intensive. So everyone becomes a civil servant as the economy cannot create jobs. Result? In 2012 budget out of a total N1.8tr recurrent expenditure for the executive arm N1.6tr is on personnel costs not overheads. To reduce this you have to cut salaries or pensions or retrench civil servants. This is the classic trajectory of underdevelopment, de-development and de-industrialisation.

4. For the above reasons I am a strong proponent of structural reform and this begins from the fiscal framework. The limited resources of government should be allocated to supporting production-especially if we are running a budget deficit. We cannot keep borrowing to support conspicuous consumption. To support a job creating economy we need to fund power, transportation infrastructure, market infrastructure and access, technical and vocational education etc. We need to build rice processing plants, produce starch and cassava flour and ethanol, process our tomato and milk locally, regenerate our textiles firms (which used to employ 600,000 workers but now employ 30,000!), refine our own crude etc. We cannot even begin to do this if 30pct of govt expenditure is on fuel subsidy, if out of the balance 70pct is recurrent spending, 10pct is debt service, 10pct goes to the niger delta and only 10pct is capital expenditure. So it is about a choice-what do we spend money on and how do we allocate resources?

5. We often compare ourselves to other oil producing countries like saudi arabia. What are the facts? With a population of over 160m we produce 2mbpd ie 1 barrel for every 80+ citizens daily. Govt share of revenues if like 50pct of every barrel so it is effectively a barrel for 160 citizens. Saudi Arabia with a 24m population produces over 8mbpd or one barrel for every 3 citizens. In fact in 2010 the nearest OPEC country to nigeria in production per capita was Algeria with a barrel for 30 and algeria is more gas than oil.

With one barrel for 3 citizens dailt saudi arabia is able to provide infrastructure, education, healthcare and social safety nets and have huge savings. It can provide subsidised fuel at a total cost that is a fraction of its savings and even export refined products. It is paying for subsidies ouy od its fiscal savings and not borrowing to pay. We are like a poor man with a rich neighbour. The neighbour buids a good house, buys several cars, eat expensive food, travel abroad every year and still have huge balances in sevral current accounts. Then you choose to live that lifestyle and mortgage your house, take an overdraft from the bank to finance it. Next year it is time to repay the bank, u don't have the money so u go to another bank, borrow enough to pay the first bank principal plus interest and also fund the continuation of the lifestyle. It continues till u can't borrow anymore and the bank throws u and your family out of your house and you everything.

A responsible father would have long since faced reality and told his family he doesn't earn as much as his neighbour and expectations need to be moderated if they to keep their roof. Of course the children won't be happy at not going to Hawaii for summer and having to take public transport rather than own cars like their neighbour's children. Maybe they will even abuse the father behind his back and call him a miser. That is the cost of leadership.

Finally: removing subsidy is not a silver bullet that solves our economic problems. And there is a huge trust deficit that government has to address. Government needs to investigate subsidy payments and punish any violations of extant guidelines. It needs to cut on unnecessary and waste ful expenditure. It needs to fight corruption and show seriousness in that. It needs to deliver on capital projects, power and infrastructure including irrigation, farm-level storage and agri-processing. These are all valid issues that are to be taken IN ADDITION to and not in place of subsidy removal.

Since someone has decided to make insinuations about my grandfather I owe it to him to defend his record. it was my grandfather as emir that repealed an obnoxious rule started from the days of Emir Usman that disenfranchised women from inheriting property. It was sanusi that built the groundnut pyramids to the point where Kano NA was contributing 40pct of the revenues of the northern region. It was emir sanusi who built the Bompai Industrial Estate, and turned kano into the industrial nerve centre of the north. He was acting governor of the northern region, minister for pilgrim affairs, chief Imam of friday mosque, judge and leader of the Tijjaniya order. As for his "descendants" my father was one of the very first batch of 12 Nigerians recruited by the British to set up the foreign service in 1957 and he remained in public service and rose to be permanent secretary before retirement. He set up in the 60s the research dept of the ministry- the present NIA so he was the first external intelligence officer in Nigeria. As permanent secretary he was the architect of Murtala Mohammed's policy on decolonisation of Africa and oversaw the independence of Mozambique and Angola and the final push to liberate Zimbabwe and South Africa.

So yes Sanusi was not perfect. He was a feudal aristocrat. And my father was not perfect. He was also a prince and priviledged to go to Oxford and LSE. But please if you want to abuse my grandfather and father kindly tell us what contributions your own grandfather and father made to the people.
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  1. This is an eye opener, but the masses cannot suffer because of corruption initiated by others. What the masses are crying for is that the subsidy removal increased their poverty, so government should find a better way of alleviating the suffering of the masses. But you did not say anything about the billions spent on politicians?

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  2. I am a civil servant. I earn N50,000 monthly. I spend N15,000 on transport, N10,000 on house rent, N10,000 on the education of my two kids, leaving me with N15,000 for food and bills. Luckily for me, my wife supports me with N15,000 (all she can afford). With subsidy removal, I now have to spend N30,000 on transport, N20,000 on house rent, N20,000 on the education of my kids (likely). My wife can only still support with N15,000 cos our salaries have not been increased. Pls can the CBN Governor kindly intimate me on how to now manage my life and that of my family? The President, Governors, Ministers, Senators, Reps, and other senior Public office holders earn millions monthly, so they can easily adjust, I CAN'T! The CBN Governor is someone I respect alot for his reforms, and thank him for his explanation of the issue at hand, but let him please kindly explain how he thinks I can now survive. Samson.

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  3. You cant fault the reasoning or the passion of the CBN Governor on this issue. The only problem is that the Government (acknowledging the rot within its ranks) has chosen to solve this problem by heaping the burden on the people least able to defend themselves - the Masses. Maybe they should do what the CBN Governor says Iran did - pay the cash proceeds directly to ordinary Nigerians and eliminate the subsidy. But ofcourse that assumes that a Government official will not divert the money into their offshore accounts

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  4. Why dont we all channel our strength and resources into investigating what the funds will be used for instead of this protest and destroying OUR "governments" properties.

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  5. Brilliant! Sanusi. Your excellence and courage in dealing with the Nigerian issues are never in doubt and whoever fails to reason with you does so, because of frustration resulting from the hardship brought in by the fuel subsidy removal. What we as Nigerians want is that The various tiers of government should immediately start fighting corruption, develop infrastructure, stop flamboyant life style etc, then ordinary Nigerians will not complain. You, as an individual have tried through your courageous exposure of corrupt tendencies inherent in our system and I want you to keep it up.

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  6. I thank you for your courage in dealing frankly with the corrupt nature of nigerians, who has ever called corruption and those involved by their rightful names in this country before now? I pray that those top govt political officials involved be brought to book and that serves as deterrent to others, nobody is above the law. Mention their names and send them to jail.Their will be killing revolution soonest of corrupt ooffiers specially the hidden ones. Govt should create job for graduates, we are not happy with the happenings in this country, if subsidy removal will solve problems highlighted above, we unemployed degree holders are solidly behind the Govt.

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  7. This argument is sound. The middle class are the ones protesting why because barely 12years they have just left the masses rank and i must tell you if you had been poor for ones and you get uplifted, you will fight with your last breath not to go back cos there is little possibility of you being in the top class. As a suggestion to the CBN governor he should watch a movie titled "Life stinks". Let him adopt that for just a month then he would better understand who bears the brunt. If he can survive on the street for a month, then his policy orientation would change. I still loath those times when both my parents were working on level 14 and 13 respectively and yet we had no house of ours, had to ration food with a constant gari soaking in the afternoon. There is no option to doing what is right on right foundations. The subsidy removal is just an automated solution in this regard as it does not addresss each process involved in solving the equation problem. Value can not be destroyed , it shifts and resettle somewhere else, so is corruption in this case, it will only shift and resettle at other ends.

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  8. Brilliant!but you need to explain in detail to the federal government,just like you have clearified in this well articulated article on the policy. Further educate them on the need and the importance to learning how to 'possition the horse before the cart'..no matter how good a policy is,it's equally as bad if it lacks the proper implimentation.

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  9. Dear Brother Lamido, thank you for the brilliant explanation of the issues sorrounding the necessity for the fuel subsidy removal. it is quite convincing and worth the sacrifice but is coming at the wrong time and absurd implementation model.
    Wrong period because the coming did not deem it fit to provide all the necessary cussions to relief the citizenry of the effects of the removal. Cost of general living has gone absurdly more than double now. where are the survival of the populace coming from. Can government be ruling dead bodies in the nation? Obviously, the worst overall situations will result to many dead or ineffective individuals in the country.
    Before the removal attempt at all, the governmment must have provided the necessary things that will restall confidence on the citizens. Topmost is the fixing of all the refineries, it is childish economy to have oil explored here, exported to other countries to be refined and then re-import here for consumption. Sinceerly as a respected economist that you are to me, I can for your resignations for not by ow put the refineries in place by now. Oil is our major source of income and by implication a major reason why you are there as our number one economist as CBN governor, while on earth should you and your top class economists allow this situation of our refinery to still be in comatose? I least expect this situation continuing in your era as CBN helmsman. You can agree with me that if that pain is remved from our oil sector, the multiplier effects are unimaginable. It is criminal of all of you policy makers to allow this situation to continue. Is that how the Iran and Saudi Arabia are runing thier own oil production to marketing? The answer is obviously no? So we don't have genuine bases to compare ourselves with them.
    Secondly, what attempts have the government made to bring to book thier so called cabal, frustrating the government efforts. Are these people bigger than the nation? If not, then this action must be taken immediately, and even ever before talking of dergulation. With them still there Nigerian will never trust whatever policy the governmnet intend taking, because it is obvious that the same people will not sleep looking at their empires demolising, they will fight more deadly modalities that may even consume people like you, God forbid, but that is a realistic expectation.
    The most amicable way out is for the government to revert to the old pump price of N65/litre, address all the issues boldly, carry the public along in the name of transparency, stop the corruption sorrounding the industry and the minsitries as a whole and then open up the discussion publicly after judiciously utilizing the resources coming out of all these efforts. Whether big or small, rich or poor, Nigeria belong to all of us, those who seems to temporarily hijacking the economy jugular would be there for the while they live, generations will come over with time. So I want to appeal to you and others like you who meant well for us all, who really have in indepth insights of the rotten oil sector to persuade the government to take the reverse position for peace to reign and address things in the public interest gradually. i wish you long life ad prosperity.

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  10. As a concernd nigerian citizen,removal of fuel subsidy aint a bad idea,bt most nigerians dnt trust d government 2 use d money judiciously. It'll stil b d vicious cycle of poverty 4 the common nigerian man or even worse. So Sanusi,ur ideas r laudable n brilliant bt we nigerians wil nt giv ur govt d benefit of doubt 2 perform cos nig govt can not be TRUSTED til evry single 1 of dem r rooted out. #öccupynigeria

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  11. Thanks SLS for the well composed essay! Its obvious you understand the issues, but instead of the government cleaning up the system and stop all kinds of corruptions in the oil sector, they decided to go the easy way. Putting all the suffering on the masses, by removing the subsidy. Subsidy is like the only infrastructure working in Nigeria, nothing else works. It doesn't make too much sense for Government to keep saying that its the fuel subsidy that has not allowed proper funding of projects all these years and stoping it will help build the country. Its only a stupid father that will stop feeding his children, because he wants to build a house for them. Fuel subsidy is not Nigeria's problem, removing it increases the burden on the masses. I suggest overhauling of the oil sector, upgrade of our refineries, because its also a stupid yamseller that will keep buying pounded yam...American govt will never stop social security funds because some fake people are collecting it. This is like the only social security we get from you guys.I hope you read this too!

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  12. very good write up. BUT it is also deficient as it fails to address these issues. As the governor of the CBN you are not only responsible for the monetary policy of Nigeria,you also are a member of the economic team, officially an adviser to the FGN and also on the rank of a minister. What your write up apart from referring to your discussion with the House of Assembly, you never said anything about the executive of which you are a part. Further, you seem to assume Nigerians are fools and even if they do not understand subsidy as professional economist they cannot simplify it and understand how it affects them and how govt expenditure us ridiculous. The issue is not subsidy removal, but issues about loose expenditure unaccountability. You have a budget that for two years running has been on a deficit of which total receipts is less than recurrent expenditure; one that after removing the subsidy provision does not capture any of the things the proceeds of subsidy should address and nothing is been done to address it. In fact none of the defenders of subsidy removal as referred to the budget for project execution and we both know that the budget represents the action plan for the country. Leadership is by example and as an example, imagine a man who keeps buying new cars and having parties and wants his employees to take a salary cut on the basis that the company is not making money. Do you think they will buy into that vision?

    What your write up lacks is that it does not contain anything regarding the steps the executive has taken to address these issues. For example a 25% to 30% reduction in recurrent expenditure and the savings reflecting in capital expenditure is more convincing of intent than a 25% reduction in basic salary or the resolution of the basic framework for deregulation (PIB Bill) is a statement of intent than buying 1,600 buses (which is less than what Lagos state has achieved under its BRT scheme under PPP) which is clearly inadequate for one state.

    Your piece also did not state what CBN has done to investigate the sudden spike in demand for FX for the purpose of importing petroleum products which if as you stated contains an element of fraud, will also include round tripping which is under your purview.Should you say otherwise, i will like to remind you that under Charles Soludo, when the BTA/PTA was been abused, the CBN took action and sanctioned the banks through whom such was done.

    I personally believe you are a man of integrity who has the good of Nigeria at heart. I beleive telling Nigerians what has been done by the executive and the achievements over the two years the decision was made to remove the subsidy and why certain cost elements are still retained in the template will go a long way in reducing that "trust deficiency"

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  13. For years! We Nigerians have Pray to God to provide us with a Man who have His country on Mind to reform and Lead the Great Nigeria to her Glory! with the Likes of President Goodluck Jonathan and Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, I think they are heading to the problems what they need from we Nigerians is support. and come to think of it, the people who are against the removal of fuel subsidy are those who highly benefits from it.

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  14. One could be well informed, but in the other hand lacks the ability to apply the information. "Education without application is jus an entertainment"...Nigerians are educated enough to know all these points.What we re agitating for had been made known. like an anonymous says "your government is puting the cart before the horse",how do you expect to run an economy in this possition?.do the right thing, and see if Nigerians wont support.

    A research well done. Mr sanusi,further research on its application in order to arrive safe at its benefits.

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  15. Anonymous, Why are u rolling back the thread, somebody has mentioned that before fuel subsidy can be removed government has to put certain infrastructures in place. A yoruba adage says"Ayangbe aja dun sugbon ki aja to gbe nkankan ni ao maa je" Meaning that roasted dog is sweet but before roasting procedures is completed we should have something in place. Besides, I am not interested in subsidy removal. The government knows those who are benefitting from it and she can put a block against it instead of letting us die of hunger caused by her fuel subsidy removal. Another issue mentioned by the FGN was that some accounts have been spotted sabotaging the benefit of fuel subsidy. What will be the function of Federal government and EFCC if they cannot make the account owner as scape goat for others to retrieve from similar acts. Let those account owners spit our money out. Some of the money recovered can be used to repair the refineries. You know what make me fear our leaders more was that during Yar'dua tenure a panel was formed to probe the money pumped into power supply and land allocation in FCT. We only heard the probe but know nothing on the aftermath. How can Nigerian change Nigeria for good when the offenders are still moving scottfree nationwide. Chineke God Make u come to our rescue o

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  16. .....With subsidy removal, I now have to spend N30,000 on transport, N20,000 on house rent, N20,000 on the education of my kids (likely). My wife can only still support with N15,000 cos our salaries have not been increased.

    Sorry, this isnt a fair arguement. How come all your costs are increasing by 100%. Going by you example to show effect of subsidy removal in evere aspect of your life, i have one question for you.

    If fuel price will be subsidised to 99% of the present cost, Does that mean you house rent,chiledren education; transportation cost etc will also reduce by 99%...the obvious ans is NO

    So as unfriendly as this subsidy removel is, I think its a way forward, If and Only if, the subsidy mony will be used judiciously.

    I think Sanusi has said it all

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  17. My fellow economist SLS we understand your rhetorical economic parlance in your pro subsidy removal discourse,quite explicit in both the normative and positve economic aspects.But i want to refer you to the words of J.M Keynes which says "in the long run ,we are all dead".Well some will die and some will not die while waiting for the gains the fed.govt is planning in the long run, for the average nigerian.This is the opportunity cost and sacrifice you rightly talked about.Definitely,you will not die because you are in the upper class classification,like other govt officials.Please sir we know all those economic jargons thought in school which are sometimes not practicable in real life situations,but are mere assumptions except based on the "ceteris paribus" which can hardly happen in nigeria because of the innate corruption and sabotage.I think the govt officials should have a drastic cut in their personal budget so that more money would be available for eco.planning,this would make public offices less attractive and then the "sacrice thing"you talked about would come to play.moreso,what about the budget originally earmarked for this purpose in the federal budget?are you saying its only the subsidy moni that can be used to finance these projects.

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  18. Anonymous
    Every one has turned anonymous

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  19. Very well spoken Sanusi. Your points have been noted. You made comparisons on such decisions taken in some European countries and America but you failed to state the obvious. Are the people of those countries lacking the basic necessities as Nigerians are? Have they got functioning hospitals, schools, steady power supply, constant water supply, good roads....... The list is endless. Ofcourse the answer is yes.
    While your school of thought is very welcomed, please advise why cuts from the allowances of top public servants especially politicians should not be the starting point. Please advise why that amount saved from inconveniencing the poor would provide good roads when in this very government contracts had been awarded for the same roads and are still to be executed. Please advise why all public servants who received bribe cannot be fired to set examples. Please why you you believe it cannot be proven in court that the items were Never delivered. I could go on and on...... Let's look and consider others before we leap. Do not insist on creating your own record just to keep up with your father's or grandfather's. This is the wrong time! Put measures in place to help the masses and confront the real issues then you would have made a just contribution to the life of your fellow Nigerians and perhaps smash the record.

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  20. all that is baceless...cant belive a whole governorof cbn said that...with due respect i think u shuld resign immediately...you are not capable of your post despart all ur experienceand year in service...you are a dis grace to the country...shouldi say u are waste man...even if nigerians forgive u all...GOD will forgive u all in jesus name...becuase u lot are born with silver spoon dat why u sayin all that shit...so there is no other way to prevent it than that...

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  21. The likes of Tunde Bakare, Dino Milaye, and their blind disciples might be anonymous here too...

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  22. mr briggs this lads are fighting for all nigerians...if u are getting something from them or u are part of them...u can go to hell if u dnt lyk our constructive challenge...enemy of progress aiye won oni daaa...

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  23. Sir i'm impressed with your write up. My question is how can this present government regain the confidence of the masses?
    Can you convince the masses that this is not another ploy to embezzle huge funds.We hear stories of how top government officials embezzle public funds and at the end nothing is said the recovered looth. What has become of the stolen funds is history.
    The CABAL behind the fraudulent practices in the oil industry- are they invisible? Can't they be prosecuted and brought to book.
    The Government is not telling us the truth.

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  24. sir i leave in uk...it seems some nigerians are above the law....in uk people in power are jail for just 1000p...so why cant we bring those people to justice in nigerian...i think they say u av to help urself before asking for GODS help...damn the government and the cbn governor is killing the country...dear mr soludo av u forget what u learnt in school...that people in the public office av a duty of honesthy and transparency to the country they serve....soludo u forget about kantian approach...to be honest with u all your qualification is useless...wat about the responsibility u av to the people of the country and ur professional bodies...danm nigerian is fuck with power of money...

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  25. Anonymous Said:
    I know and quite understand that if the FGN adopt the right formulas on the issue of Subsidy removal, that is accepting the responsibility of establishing an arm of the government herself to purchase adequate number of vessels even if it will cost us borrowing from world bank to export the crude oil to recommended refinery abroad rather than contracting to individual cabals; use the fund set for purchasing new buses to alleviate the hike PMS recently and better wise the FGN be responsible for allocation of minimum N20,000 to every Nigerian Citizen till our own refineries are reform and new refineries put in place by private bodies who have satisfied the FGN requirments. Thanks

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  26. i personally was with the government for subsidy removal.i really do not know why we have choosen to show the brain surgeon how to operate or perform surgery on the patient.It is only the surgeon and his team of qualified nurses that will perform the operation.If given a chance likes of Mr sanusi,Mrs Iwela,Mrs maduekwe would try to change a few things in this country.But instead we have all turned economist and analyst in how to sustain the economy of a consuming country like ours.Labour and trade congress leaders have shown no mercy to these few that actually know what they are doing.God save us.

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  27. Nice one from Sanusi. Believe me, I don't care who abuse you or your family. It is your personal business.

    My view is simple, recommending removal of susbidy knowing fully that various scams in the downstrem sector are our problem is illogical.I see such recommendation as an act of coardice.

    Sanusi, if scam is the issue, let's face it; leave that for EFCC. Let's hold the bull by the horn. When we have finished removing these scams, then we can talk about removal and how it can help the development of the nation. I wonder what you were doing when CBN was paying the so-called cabals....

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  28. Well written, I must say but the issues remain. He is comparing our situation with that of a poor man with rich neighbours but in reality, that is not the case. Our is rather a case of two rich men but while one of them is using his resources for the benefit of the family, the other has a son who's squandering what should have been used for the family's benefit. What is the logical solution? Make the whole family suffer for the wrongs of one child or punish the erring child and stop him from further wrongdoings? Nigerians are tired of being misled and deceived. And please quit boring us with the achievements of your grandfather and father. Nobody will judge you based on that. The country is looking at you, not them

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  29. i thank God that every individual have posted comment and i pray that the almighty will help our nation, please let pray for Nigeria. Anyway i have a question for Mr sanusi esq sir why is it that all project in Nigeria had always ended up failing power project failed,refinery turn around failed and billions on naira are spend without any good result,you have brought out a lot of loop hole in the system and i can tell you there is no perfect system unless we work together to make it workout,
    The problem in Nigeria is not only policy formulation but implementation, many Nigerians are tired and sick of being tossed here and there with deceit as no corrupt officer and leader bought to book.
    Finance minister said the money will be spend within the three tiers of government,that is bullshit,is it when many governor cant account for the money disburse to them or wasteful spending of the politician. my cbn governor tell our president that all Nigerian and the one unborn will hold him responsible for the way this money will be used o

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  30. sanusi u can go 2 hell 4 all i care, ur very crafty, do u copy? VERY CRAFTY! u come off looking like a very intelligent dude but i put it 2 u dat ur not good for this country. u championed d removal of fuel subsidy only 4 u 2 later turn against d govt of which u r part of, and ecouraged 2 go ahead with d romoval by saying "i'm speaking as a nigerian and in oda 2 reduce d hardship on d masses, govt. shud come 2 a compromise n revet 2 d 65#/ltr. scheme.........mr man pls resign cos u have no integrity, ur a TRAITOR!

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  31. My question is this: Since we discovered oil decades ago, show me what has been done with the money. Reduce the wastage and corruption in government FIRST before pumping more money into the government for you and your cronies to steal. Where is Nigerian Airways, Nigerian railways, Nipost, Nitel, Nepa/Phcn, Water corp etc. How can we trust people who have looted us for 52year? How?

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