Thursday, January 12, 2012

Subsidy cabals must go to jail, say Sanusi, Okonjo-Iweala


The Nation
11 January 2012


The Finance Minister Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi have admitted there is corruption in the oil sector. They said the government must bring the culprits to book.

They spoke yesterday at the African International Television’s (AIT’s) programme – Matters Arising where they had gone to defend the removal of fuel subsidy that had sparked an industrial strike across the country since Monday.

The CBN governor noted he had raised the alarm at the House of Representatives over the corruption in the subsidy regime as far back as early 2011. He said: “If you have fuel selling at N65 per litre in Nigeria and at N190 in a neighbouring country, it is simple economics anybody who knows he can take advantage of that rent will take advantage of it.”

However, he noted that under a democracy, price system becomes one of the effective ways of checking these trends. “N80 or N90 per litre difference with a porous border will encourage corruption,” Sanusi said.

CBN governor warned Nigerians not to deceive themselves by believing that Nigeria is an oil rich country. “Nigeria is not an oil rich country. We are an oil producing country. Nigeria produces two million barrels per day, with a population of 167million people, Saudi Arabia produces eight million barrels per day with a population of 24million people, one barrel for three compared to one barrel for 80. So if you say we are oil rich, let us remember that we don’t have as much oil as Saudi Arabia but we have six times their population.  That you have oil does not mean you are an oil rich country. Wealth or poverty is relative,” he said.

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