Calling Nigeria Giant Of Africa Deceptive – Sanusi

A former Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi ll, says Nigeria should stop deceiving itself with the appellation ‘Giant of Africa,’ saying the country is way behind many other African countries in developmental indices.

He also asserted that with the rate at which neighbouring Ghana was attracting industries, “Ghanaian President has become the leading President in Africa.”

Sanusi, a former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, said while Nigeria was stuck on crude oil, which is fast depleting and struggling to sell, the rest of the world was embracing technology.

He said except there was a paradigm shift in Nigeria’s economic focus from oil to knowledge, the nation’s economy risks imminent collapse.

Sanusi spoke at the closing session of the Kaduna Investment Summit, tagged, ‘KadInvest 6.0.’

He pointed out that while neigbouring Ghana with smaller economy invests  more in education, Nigeria spends only seven per cent of its budget on that.

He said the current reality in Nigeria was that only eight out of every 100 primary school pupils go as far as the university level, while only a fraction of those would get a job upon graduation.

-Punch