Sanusi: Nigeria’s Economic Crisis Is the Cost of Delayed Fuel Subsidy Removal
Story: written by Uzuh Rita Ocotber 29,2025
The Emir of Kano, Muhammad Sanusi II, has linked Nigeria’s current economic challenges to the country’s refusal to eliminate fuel subsidies more than ten years ago.
Speaking on Tuesday at the Oxford Global Think Tank Leadership Conference, Sanusi — who previously served as Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria — argued that Nigeria would have avoided the severity of today’s inflation and hardship if the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan had succeeded in ending the subsidy regime in 2011.
According to him, the pushback that halted the policy over a decade ago has led the nation into a deeper economic crisis.
“If Nigerians had supported the subsidy removal in 2011, yes, there would have been some hardship,” he said. “But it would have been extremely mild compared to what we are experiencing today. The delay is what has brought us to this point.”
Sanusi revealed that the CBN had previously analyzed the possible effects of subsidy removal and projected that inflation would remain manageable if the reform was carried out at the time.
“We did the calculations back then,” he said. “I stood firmly on my position: remove the subsidy immediately. Inflation may rise slightly — maybe from 11 percent to 13 percent — and within a year, we would have brought it down again. We wouldn’t be dealing with inflation above 30 percent as we are now.”
