Emir Sanusi Lists How Nigerians Contributed To Economic Crisis

The Emir of Kano, Alhaji Muhammadu Sanusi II, on Saturday listed some of the ways Nigerians contributed to the present economic downturn, saying that Nigeria must stop importing what it has in order to boost local industries and create jobs. He stated this in Kaduna while inaugurating the new Council Secretariat of the Kaduna Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (KACCIMA). Sanusi, a former Governor of Central Bank, CBN, said the current economic crisis induced by the crash in global oil price, should serve as a wake up call for the country to utilise its resources judiciously. “Nigeria is full of experts in importing what we have and exporting what we do not have. “We have cotton but we import textile materials from China; we have crude oil but we import fuel refined from our own crude from Russia and other countries. “We have gas but we let it flare away instead of utilising it to produce power, yet import generators from outside. “We eat our hides and skin and import shoes from outside, and we eat our tomatoes and import canned tomatoes paste from China.” The Emir said things must change, and advised the Federal Government to give priority to education, industries, power and agriculture. Sanusi noted that the textile industries in the past had employed more than 600, 000 people at a time. He further advised industrialists to always draw the attention of government when it derails from targeted national goals. The Emir stressed that the persistent conflicts in the country were largely due to economic hardships and not religion or tribal sentiments.

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