“Those in government must understand that there are times that you have to make some decisions not because they are popular but because they are right”
Deposed Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi ll on Tuesday called for the impeachment of President Muhammadu Buhari for spending millions of dollars on fuel subsidies.
Sanusi, a former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria said the constitution gives room for the impeachment of Buhari for expending multiple millions of dollars on fuel subsidies without appropriation.
The World Bank had on Monday decried the continued spending by the Nigerian government on petrol subsidy, which it said is on track to gobble up N2.9tn this year.
Its Country Director for Nigeria, Shubham Chaudhuri, who stated this at a panel session during the 27th National Economic Summit, said the country could channel the money being spent on subsidies to primary healthcare, basic education and rural roads. Read More
“Every year, the government spends millions upon millions of dollars on fuel subsidies without appropriation. Under the constitution, this is enough ground to impeach the President.
“But nobody is holding them to account. The National Assembly is not holding them to account,” Sanusi was quoted by Vanguard to have said at the Nigeria Economic Summit in Abuja on Tuesday.
He said the federal government’s populist approach was hurting the nation.
Read Also Nigerian Government to end petrol subsidy June 2022 as World Bank condemns N2.9tn funding
The dethroned Kano Emir implored the Buhari-led regime to be courageous enough to take the right decisions, saying the country was running a populist instead of a developmental state.
“Those in government must understand that there are times that you have to make some decisions not because they are popular but because they are right.
“We have to decide to run a developmental state and not a rental state; not a populists state,” the former emir said.
He further said that the Nigerian government was subsidising fuel, electricity at the expense of the growth of education in the country.
“We are pursuing a populist policy: we want to have cheap fuel, cheap electricity, a strong Naira. That is populism.
“At the end of the day, what price are we paying by taking money out of education in order to subsidise petroleum products?” he said.
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