According to Kano Emir Muhammadu Sanusi, former President Goodluck Jonathan nearly eliminated fuel subsidies in 2011 as a result of the Boko Haram insurgency.
Sanusi made the disclosure at the Oxford Global Think Tank Leadership Conference in Abuja on Tuesday.
According to the former governor of the CBN, the nation’s economic woes are a result of its inability to eliminate the fuel subsidy more than ten years ago.
Boko Haram was the sole cause of the government’s compromise at the time, which ranged from 50% to 100%. In Lagos, Kano, Kaduna, and other cities, thousands of Nigerians were living on the streets.
There was a fear that one day, one of these suicide bombers would go to these Nigerians and explode bombs, and you would have 200 corpses; it would no longer be about subsidy.
The credit must go to President Jonathan. Although he was adamant about it, the compromise was ultimately made in order to save Nigerian lives.
According to Sanusi, “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 tiny fraction of what we are facing today. This is the cause of the delay.”
