RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - SANUSI LAMIDO'S WARPED LOGIC ON THE EMERGENCE OF BOKO HARAM

Mr. Sanusi knows deep in his heart that poverty is at best an excuse for the atrocities perpetrated by Boko Haram on  innocent Nigerians including Muslims I should add. Nigeria’s leadership was produced almost exclusively by the North 1960-1999 and again during the Yar A’dua presidency and they did not do much about the poverty in Boko Haram states.

Mr. Sanusi by the absurd case he makes to the Financial Times Newspaper stretched his economic and social engineering arguments to explain the political insurgency of religious zealots who have the support of some Muslim Northern Nigerian elites. It is ridiculous to liken the poverty in the Boko Haram states to the environmental devastation driven poverty in the oil producing southern Nigerian states. The poverty of the Boko Haram States that he tries to explain is the choice of the leaders of the states. Zamfara state is the first Sharia state in Nigeria. Has the imposition and implementation of Sharia law in Zamfara state led to any measurable improvement in the living conditions of the ordinary people of the state? The answer is an unqualified No. It has however made a measurable improvement in the lives of the political and religious leaders of the state. Sharia law is clearly not the answer to the eradication of poverty anywhere just as the imbalance in federal revenue allocation to states is not a reason for a religion driven political insurgency. Sharia law imposition and enforcement may in fact be a poverty exacerbation factor.

Political insurgency is a costly business. Boko Haram is able to operate because it has overseas and local financial backers with deep pockets. Mr. Sanusi’s  very privileged high position in government places him in good stead to know the richest Nigerians. He better than any other Nigerian, is positioned to know the sources, reasons for,  and recipients of international funds transfer to Nigeria. He should therefore be of some assistance to Nigeria’s Security Agencies in tracking Boko Haram’s financial supporters and sympathizers outside and inside Nigeria.

Mr. Sanusi is a central banker by appointment. He is advised to limit his public comments to the issues that pertain to his day job.  It is only in Nigeria that a central banker will willfully stray into a political insurgency controversy when they are up to the neck with pressing economic issues that they are evidently not on top of. He should not have taken the Financial Times’ poison bait on Boko Haram. There are people in government in Nigeria who are much better positioned to informedly opinionate on the rise and crimes of Boko Haram. The more Mr. Sanusi limits his public commentary to economic and financial issues, the less damage hi is likely to do to his legitimacy and effectiveness as Nigeria’s primary central banker. No comments is sometimes the best answer to a poison question.

 

oa

 

     

From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of BEN OSAWE
Sent: Saturday, January 28, 2012 3:17 AM
To: USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - SANUSI LAMIDO'S WARPED LOGIC ON THE EMERGENCE OF BOKO HARAM

 

Sanusi Links Boko Haram to Derivation

28 Jan 2012

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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."(THISDAYLIVE, SATURDAY 28TH JANUARY 2012).

 

Ben Osawe

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