Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and former Emir of Kano, has slammed the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led government for reversing Nigeria’s economic progress by 40 years. He said that the APC has erased all the achievements the country made in 35 years.
The former Emir made this statement in a trailer for an interview with Rufai Oseni of Arise TV. He based his argument on Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita on a Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) basis between 1980 and 2023.
He said that the economic gains the country made between 1980 and 2014 were wiped out between 2014 and 2019.
“Let me give you an idea, when we look at the numbers we see how bad things are. If you look at the World Bank development indicators, in 1980, on a PPP basis, our per capita GDP was, I believe, $2,180. In 2014, it had risen to $3,099, a 50 percent rise. In 2019, our GDP per capita, on a PPP basis was down to $2,229.
At this rate, by 2023, on a per capita basis, we would be back to where we were in 1980. We have been set back 40 years. Look at the fall between 2014 and 2019, all the gains made in 35 years between 1980 and 2014 were wiped out,” he said.
This is not the first time Sanusi is criticising the APC-led Federal Government for being responsible for Nigeria’s economic woes. He had previously accused the administration of the immediate past president, Muhammadu Buhari, of ignoring his advice on how to move Nigeria forward.
He said he had to deviate from the religious theme of a recent virtual event to remind Nigerians about his stand on the poorly managed economic policies of the Buhari administration. He said that everything in Nigeria in the last eight years was done on the basis of debt and that no country will survive with that kind of economic policy.
