Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, CBN Governor
By Yemi Adebowale, with agency reports, and Ahamefula Ogbu


Attempts to redress historic grievances in Nigeria’s oil-rich south may inadvertently have helped create the conditions for the Islamic insurgency spreading from the impoverished north-east of the country, so says Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
A revenue sharing formula that gave 13 percent derivation to the oil-producing states was introduced after the military relinquished power in 1999 among a series of measures aimed at redressing historic grievances among those living closest to the oil and quelling a conflict that was jeopardising output.
But Sanusi who spoke in an interview with the Financial Times Friday said: "There is clearly a direct link between the very uneven nature of distribution of resources and the rising level of violence."
He said that it was now necessary to focus funds on regenerating other regions if Nigeria wants to secure long-term stability.
"When you look at the figures and look at the size of the population in the north, you can see that there is a structural imbalance of enormous proportions. Those states simply do not have enough money to meet basic needs while some states have too much money.
"The imbalance is so stark because the state still depends on oil for more than 80 per cent of its revenues," said Sanusi.
The FT, in a further analysis of the issue yesterday, wrote: "Nigeria has made little headway raising taxes for example from agriculture, which accounts for 42 per cent of GDP. Northern Nigeria’s economy has traditionally depended on the government more than the south. Many of the industries set up as part of earlier efforts to promote national balance have gone bust or been sold off during a decade of liberal market reforms, power shortages and infrastructure collapse.
"According to official figures, the leading oil producing state, Rivers, received N1,053 billion between 1999 and 2008 in federal allocations. By contrast the North-eastern states of Yobe and Borno, where the Boko Haram sect was created, received N175bn and N213bn respectively. Broken down on a per capita basis, the contrast is even starker. In 2008 the 18.97m people who lived in the six states in the north-east received on average N1,156 per person.
"By contrast Rivers state was allocated N3,965 per capita, and on average the oil producing South- South region received on average N3,332 per capita. This imbalance is compounded when the cost of an amnesty programme for militants in the delta is included together with an additional 1 per cent for a special development body for the Niger Delta. To boot, the theft of oil by profiteers in the region diverts tens of millions more weekly from federal coffers."
In the past year, the extremist Boko Haram sect has been responsible for proliferating attacks on churches, police stations and other state targets. Just last week, it claimed responsibility for multiple bomb blasts that claimed nearly 200 lives in Kano. The size and sophistication of the attacks underlined fears that the conflict is spiralling out of control.
. . .

My peoplem

When a lie is repeated often without being checked, it begins to look like the truth. Who told this Sanusi Lamido Sanusi that the North East of Nigeria is more populous than any other comparable part of Nigeria? His political group make a genuine census impossible and turned the politics of census into the politics of Nigeria. He cannot rely on his own figures that they made impossible for others to accept as the basis for Boko Haram.

Secondly, where is corruption in the equation and what part did the people of the North East and their elite play in that corruption? Is that not the part of Nigeria where a Governor kept 150 brand new jeeps in a compound and said he was a collector of jeeps? This Sanusi Lamido Sanusi must think that the publishers of Financial Times are as foolish as his fellow Nigerian elite who fail to tell themselves the truth and who lie to each other and think that the whole wide world is as stupid as they are.

Thirdly, when will he from Kano band his fellow Borno-Adamawa elite admit that they are the ones who are at fault. They are the ones who failed their people and failed Nigeria and they are the ones who go about bandying false theories and precepts. When 3 motor assembly plants were set up in Nigeria Volkswagen was in Lagos our friend at the Pan African University Pat Utomi ruined that one after he grabbed it under the PDP working for Shehu Shagari and ruined it. PAN - Peugeot Automobile was established in Kaduna and that one continues to gulp subsidies and state aids and yet is not profitable, and ANNAMCO - Anambra State Motor Company with Mercedes Benz was set up in the East and today it is producing luxurious buses and it is profitable.

I am sure in that example lies the derivation theory of Sanusi Lamido Sanusi. A derivation of laziness, a derivation of greed and corruption, and a derivation of lack of investment in your own people and in your own area. Begrudging those whose oil has been stolen and whose lands have been destroyed does not cut it. It is lazy mental exercise and Mister Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, we need more rigour and more truth from you you.

Cheers.



Ibukunolu Alao Babajide (IBK)

 

Comments (4)
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Linking Boko Haram's insurgency to derivation is an oxymoron. It is not at all surprising that this is all Sanusi can offer as an explanation of the rise of the Boko Haram. So what is the reason for the rise of Islamic insurgency every other place in the world and the continued plots to attack Western interests in the US, Europe and in many Maghreb nations in Africa? It is reasoning like this that makes some think the elite in the north know more than they are revealing.
From: xxxx
Posted: 1 hour ago
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What do you mean now? Your statement has a lot of meaning: that is, you sponsored them so that Federal government will give more money to Northern state? or are you saying that the oil producing state should not benefit from the resources? [/b]I think if i'm not making mistake, you are calling for the division of the country in which i agree with you. However, if we still have one Nigeria according to Northern leaders, then you should please step down because you are encouraging this boys to go ahead and kill people.
From: xxxxx
Posted: 1 hour ago
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Sanusi Lamido has shown his tribal and religious agenda. [b]He did not make reference to the losses from pollutions, accidents and other hazards that ought to be compensated for as they arise from the oil production. The issue of Boko Haram was raise by US intelligence since Abacha regime. The warning was that 'a parallel military was being formed in the North-East part of Nigeria'. It will be wrong to attribute it to unfair and iniquity share of the oil revenue. Is it the only Northern States that don�t partake equally from the oil revenue? Why are states like Kebbi, Katsina and Sokoto not involved in this jihad? Why are foreigners from Niger Republic and Chad involved?
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From: xxxxx
Posted: 1 hour ago
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My Dear Sanusi, I just can't believe what I am reading but this is the moment of truth for Nigeria. Tell your brothers to move south, adopt the religion and culture of Rivers or Akwa Ibom and prosper there. Are you going to be worshiping the Arab Prophet and Mecca while oil from the south south feeds you? Down south we are worshiping the Jewish Man and the Italian pope while their oil companies rob us blind and they cheat us in international trade. THE BLACK MAN IS DOOMED!!! Tufia! worldly oil money won by infidel Lord Lugard to pacify non-thinking muslims. Doom,doom doom! Araba until each family is a country for the selfish slow black people of Nigeria

hero70:
_SMF-BREAK_It was the riches from the north that was used to exploit the oil resouces in the south,so why the imbalance in allocations,that's to show the greed of this people,and after all we are all Nigerians. _SMF-BREAK_