He stated, “I will give you an example from my experience in Kano. The previous government wanted to borrow $1.8 billion from China to build 75-kilometre of rail. Forex then was N197 to a dollar. As a trained economist and former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, I could see the growth in money supply and I was sure that Naira was not going to remain at that artificial level of N200 for a long time.
“Part of my job was to advise the government. I told them, look, this amount of money you want to borrow, if the naira depreciates to N500 to the dollar, this money will become N1 trillion. Your internally generated revenue is not up to N20 billion, you will need about N100 billion per annum just to service the debt. It is not sustainable.”
Sanusi stated that despite his repeated warnings, the government did not heed his advice. Concerned about the long-term consequences, Sanusi said he felt compelled to speak out publicly against the loan.
He expressed that had the loan been taken, the government would struggle to meet basic financial obligations, such as paying salaries, and essential budgets like education would suffer due to debt servicing.
Reflecting on the current exchange rate of N1,500 to a dollar, he estimated that the cost of the rail project would now amount to N3 trillion. Sanusi acknowledged that his outspoken stance on the issue nearly cost him his position as Emir, but he believed it was necessary to prevent future generations from bearing the burden of unsustainable debt.CONTINUE FULL READING>>>>>
