The Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, has revealed that former President Goodluck Jonathan suspended the 2012 fuel subsidy removal not because of mass protests, but because intelligence warned that Boko Haram suicide bombers were planning to attack demonstrators.
Sanusi, who served as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor during Jonathan’s administration, said the president feared a national tragedy if the policy was implemented amid the protests.
According to him, the government was ready to face public outrage, but not a bloodbath.
Speaking at the Oxford Global Think Tank Leadership Conference themed “Better Leader for a Better Nigeria,” Sanusi described Nigeria’s subsidy policy as a disastrous “naked hedge” that crippled the economy.
He said, “If you look at the template, all of those amounts were being absorbed. The Federal Government was saying I have an unlimited pocket.
“So move from a point where we were using revenues to pay subsidies to where we had to borrow money to pay subsidies, to where we had to borrow money to pay interest on the borrowed money, we had become bankrupt.
“Anyone who takes a naked hedge ends up being bankrupted, especially with a commodity where you don’t control the price.”
Sanusi insisted that Nigeria’s present economic pain could have been avoided if Jonathan’s government had gone ahead with subsidy removal in 2011.
He said, “If Nigerians had allowed the Jonathan government to remove the subsidy in 2011, there would have been pain.
“But that pain would have been a very, very tiny fraction of what we are facing today. This is the cost of today.
“At that time, we worked out the numbers in the Central Bank, and I stood up and put my credit in front of the line and said, ‘Remove the subsidy today; inflation moves up from 11 percent to 13 percent. I will bring it down a bit later.’ Oh, that’s about 30-something per cent inflation. That was where we were.”
The Emir disclosed that Jonathan’s eventual U-turn, cutting subsidy only by half, was driven purely by security fears.
He said, “And it was like, if one day one of these suicide bombers goes to these Nigerians and explodes the bomb, and you have 200 corpses, it will no longer be about subsidy. So I got to give President Jonathan the credit. He was determined to do it.
“The only reason the government compromised and did 50 percent, not 100 percent, was Boko Haram.
“If one suicide bomber had attacked protesters in Lagos, Kano, or Kaduna, and 200 people died, it would have gone beyond subsidy.”
Despite the compromise, Sanusi hailed Jonathan’s courage for attempting to push through tough reforms in the face of danger.
But he didn’t spare Nigeria’s political elite, slamming them for their greed and moral bankruptcy.
He said, “By the time you become a governor, you should be beyond looking for money. But many live like illiterates despite their education.”
