A former governor of Nigeria’s Central Bank, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, has said President Bola Tinubu should not be blamed for Nigeria’s current economic hardship.
Sanusi made the statement on Sunday at a religious event in the country’s capital Abuja.
The former apex bank chief said the failure of Africa’s largest economy was due to the aftermath of poorly managed economic policies during the past eight years.
“I have been, over the years, talking about the pending crisis ahead of the current economic hardship. Any economist who has studied monetary policy in the last eight years knows that Nigerians will fall into this difficult situation,” Sanusi said.
“The difficult situation Nigerians are facing is just the beginning (if the right decision is not put in place) because Nigeria is not exceptional; such situations happened in Germany, Zimbabwe, Uganda, and Venezuela.”
The renowned scholar added that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari “turned adamant about our appeal for corrective measures (on the economic policy). I have said in the presence of the now sitting president in Kaduna state, any politician who tells you that things will be easy, don’t vote for him because he is lying. People merely dismissed my advisory as a political statement.”
“I can’t join other Nigerians criticising Tinubu on the current economic hardship, and I am not saying he is a saint free from wrongdoing, but in this current economic situation, President Tinubu is not to be blamed,” adding that he would speak if he sees any wrong economic policy of the current administration in the future.