By Mustapha Usman
The emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, has faulted Kano State government’s decision to provide light rail in the state, saying the plan was built on a shaky foundation.
The $1.85 million light rail project, conceived by Governor Abdullahi Ganduje, would be executed through foreign loan acquisition from Chinese Development Bank to finance 85 per cent of the total contract sum.
But the emir picked holes in the project while delivering a keynote address at Kaduna Investment Forum, KADINVEST 2.0, on Wednesday in Kaduna, saying the project is misplacement of priorities.
“We have governors,” Emir Sanusi began, “they go to China and spend one month on a tour and what do they come back with, MoU on debts.
“China will lend you $1.8bn to build light rail. This light rail will be done by the rail workers from China. The trains will come from China. The engines will come from China. The labour comes from China. The driver is Chinese.
“At the end of the day, what do you benefit from it? Your citizen will ride on a train and when you ride on a train, in northern Nigeria, in a state like Kano or Katsina, where are you going to? You are not going to an industrial estate to work. You are not going to school? You are not going to the farm. You borrow money from China to invest in trains so that your citizens can ride on them and go for weddings and naming ceremonies.”
On the 2017 Budget, the monarch also criticized the federal government for borrowing, saying the amount set aside for debt servicing surpasses the entire non-oil revenue.
“The Federal Government of Nigeria is spending 66 per cent of its revenues on interests on debts, which means only 34 per cent of revenues is available for capital and recurrent expenditures. That model cannot work. If you look at the 2017 budget of the Federal Government, I sometimes wonder what Nigerian economists are doing?
“In the 2017 budget presented by the Federal Government, the amount earmarked for debt servicing is in excess of the entire non-oil revenue of the Federal Government, but that is not the problem. The problem is that it is a budget that is even going for more debts.
“Growth can only come from investments. It cannot come from consumption. It cannot come from government balance sheet. It cannot come from borrowing because you cannot borrow unsustainably,” said the emir.
