Nigeria Better Off With Lagos Than With The N/Delta, Says Emir Sanusi II

The Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, has said that Nigeria is better off with Lagos than with the Niger Delta. He made this position known in a post on his Instagram page. Following the crash in the price of oil in the international market, there have been arguments in support of diversification of Nigeria’s economy from crude oil, which comes from the restive Niger Delta region. Some of the public commentators often cite the Lagos example, which though officially became an oil-producing state recently, has survived over the years on non-crude oil earnings. Supporting this line of argument, the emir, a former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, said the example presented by Lagos State, is a story of what Nigeria can do with itself in terms of transparency, consistency and regulations. According to him, “That’s why today, Lagos state is 30% Nigerian non-oil GDP, and Lagos can do without oil”. He continued: “This country is better off with Lagos than with the Niger Delta. Let’s not make that mistake. We should be together as a country. Every part of the country is important. But, let us not be so obsessed by a resource, because we have had the commodity driven model, and we are blind to the potentials of an alternative model”. Sanusi II maintained that “Lagos doesn’t need oil. What is oil anyway? It is a raw material. You don’t drink it. You need it to move your vehicles. Now, you have electricity. You need it to fill your generator. Now you have solar power, and biomass. The future of oil is not there”. The monarch also had a message for those agitating for the country’s break-up so they can have their oil and earnings from it to themselves. “So, those few people who are trying to break up this country over oil, after sometime that oil will be worthless”, he asserted.