The Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi, has disclosed that former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration reversed its plan to remove the fuel subsidy in 2011 due to national security concerns at the height of the Boko Haram insurgency.
Speaking at the Oxford Global Think Tank Leadership Conference in Abuja on Tuesday, Sanusi — who served as the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) from 2009 to 2014 — said the decision was taken to prevent potential terrorist attacks during nationwide protests.
“The only reason the government compromised at that time and did 50 per cent to 100 per cent was Boko Haram. There were thousands of Nigerians on the streets in Lagos, Kano, Kaduna, and other cities,” he explained.
“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.”
Sanusi praised Jonathan’s determination to implement the subsidy reform despite mounting public resistance.
“You have to give President Jonathan the credit. He was determined to do it, but at the end of the day, the compromise was made to save Nigerian lives,” he said.
According to the former CBN governor, Nigeria’s current economic woes could have been avoided if the subsidy had been removed over a decade ago.
“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,” he said.
Sanusi revealed that the CBN had, at the time, calculated the economic impact of the policy, projecting only a temporary rise in inflation.
“We worked out the numbers in the Central Bank. I stood up and put my credibility on the line and said, remove the subsidy today. Inflation moves up from 11 per cent to 13 per cent, I will bring it down in a year,” he said.
He lamented that Nigeria is now grappling with inflation above 30 per cent, describing the situation as “poetic justice.”
“It is actually the people who led the Occupy Nigeria movement who ended up inheriting the problem and having to do it,” he added.
President Bola Tinubu, in his May 29, 2023 inauguration speech, announced the end of the decades-old fuel subsidy — a move intended to stabilise public finances but which triggered sharp increases in fuel prices, transportation costs, and food inflation, pushing millions into poverty.
While critics have blamed the policy for worsening economic hardship, supporters argue that it was a necessary step toward restoring fiscal discipline and achieving sustainable growth.
