News
Face the president and tell him the truth! – Sanusi tells ministers
Former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor and Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, has cautioned presidential advisers and ministers against becoming sycophants instead of providing candid counsel that could benefit the nation’s economy.
Sanusi delivered these remarks Monday in Abuja during the Oxford Global Think Tank Leadership Conference and Book Launch, where he and Atedo Peterside analyzed Nigeria’s economic policies and governance difficulties.
Addressing the importance of honesty and bravery in government service, Sanusi expressed concern that Nigeria’s leadership problems are amplified by sycophancy, with truth-tellers frequently labeled as government adversaries.
READ ALSO: Sanusi recants on support for Tinubu *Mounts global investment campaign
“Our leaders listen but only to those who tell them what they want to hear,” the Emir said. “Nigeria has too many sycophants in government. Those who speak the truth are seen as enemies of the state.”
He criticized the increasing tendency toward excessive flattery of political figures during official events, cautioning that it suppresses genuine feedback and effective governance.
“You sit in a meeting, and the President is there. The first thing people say is, ‘Mr. President, I want to thank you for your great leadership. God has blessed Nigeria by making you our leader,’” Sanusi said. “By the time they finish laying that foundation, it is their advice that the President accepts.”
“But when you tell the truth and point out what is wrong, they say you are the enemy. That is why people like Atedo Peterside and myself are always seen as enemies of the state because people don’t like hearing the truth.”
Sanusi called on ministers and presidential counselors to rebuild integrity in public service through honest communication with leadership, emphasizing that unquestioning allegiance has hindered Nigeria’s advancement.
“Those who work with the President must understand that it is not in their benefit to turn themselves into praise singers,” he warned. “You disgrace yourself and the office you hold when you do that.”
Discussing economic matters, the Emir acknowledged the Tinubu administration’s fuel subsidy elimination and exchange rate unification as difficult but essential measures. However, he warned these reforms would prove ineffective without institutional discipline and responsible fiscal management.
“If you stop paying subsidies but continue borrowing more, it means you’ve filled one hole only to dig another,” he said. “The real challenge now is the quality of government spending and the management of the revenues saved.”
Sanusi, who led the CBN from 2009 to 2014, attributed Nigeria’s present economic difficulties to prolonged policy inconsistency and populist governance, observing that politicians who resisted subsidy removal in 2012 are now implementing it.
“In 2012, we warned that the subsidy was unsustainable, but politics took over,” he recalled. “Now the same people who led protests against it have inherited the problem and had no choice but to do the right thing.”
The Emir commended the current economic team’s professionalism, including Finance Minister Wale Edun and CBN Governor Yemi Cardoso, crediting them with positive steps toward stabilizing inflation and exchange rate fluctuations.
Nevertheless, he emphasized the urgent need to eliminate government waste, reduce cabinet size, and demonstrate leadership through example.
“Why do we need 48 ministers? Why do we need long convoys of vehicles and endless travel expenses?” he queried. “We cannot preach sacrifice to the people while living in luxury at the top.”
The conference theme, “Reimagining Leadership and Governance in a Changing Africa,” attracted policymakers, development specialists, and academics discussing pathways for governance effectiveness and institutional transformation.
Atedo Peterside, Stanbic IBTC Bank founder, reinforced Sanusi’s fiscal responsibility message, stating that government must demonstrate that subsidy removal savings benefit ordinary Nigerians.
“It’s not true that pain automatically brings gain,” Peterside warned. “Gain only follows pain if the government spends wisely, eliminates waste, and supports the poor.”
Both speakers agreed Nigeria’s recovery requires not just aggressive economic reforms but ethical renewal among leadership.
“Good policy without good governance is like planting a tree and refusing to water it,” Sanusi said. “Nigeria’s leaders must stop surrounding themselves with praise singers and start listening to the truth even when it is uncomfortable.”
The echoes of the drums rolled out to celebrate the rescue of the 44 teachers and students, kidnapped from some schools in Oyo State, after 56 days in the bush, would surely be disrupted abruptly, with the divergent echoes of a fresh abduction, this time coming from Kogi State.
Reports indicate that the gunmen, struck on Tuesday at the Government Secondary School, Odo-Ekina, in Dekina Local Government Area of the state, abducting four students, the school principal and a National Examinations Council (NECO) ad hoc staff member.
Authorities of the Kogi State Police Command, who immediately unleashed their operatives in hot pursuit of the abductors, said the attack occurred at about 5:25 p.m. while the students were writing their NECO examination.
Saliu Oyiza Afusat, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) and spokesman of the command, said a combined team of police personnel and other security agencies has launched a search-and-rescue operation following the incident.
Informing that one of the students was actually rescued immediately, she said efforts were ongoing to secure the release of the remaining victims and apprehend the attackers, adding that Naziru Bello Kankarofi, the state Commissioner of Police, alongside the Brigade Commander and the State Security Adviser to the Governor, Commodore Jerry Omodara (Rtd), were already on the way to the scene for an on-the-spot assessment.
Oil prices are expected to go down now with the announcement of Donald Trump, US President that he will no longer impose a 20 percent “safe passage” fee on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
The POTUS, hinged his reversal of the decision on the intervention from some Gulf countries, who pleaded with him not to toe the line due to the massive economic impact the decision would make on the region.
Indeed, oil prices had shot up immediately Trump announced the new levy on Monday while declaring the US ‘the guardians of the Hormuz strait,’ a measure which he said was to pay for the cost of guarding the volatile area in order keep supply of oil flowing.
Reports said that Gulf allies of the US worked frantically to get Trump on the phone in time to talk him out of the idea altogether, while a flurry of appeals came from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar.
In response, the POTUS, posting on his Truth Social platform, wrote: “Based on highly productive conversations with Middle East leadership, I have decided to replace the 20% United States Reimbursement Fee with Trade and Investment Deals that the various Gulf States will be making into the United States.”
Trump, who said the investments would be “MASSIVE but, at the same time, extraordinarily good for them, and their future,” added that the deals would see factories, plants, and equipment pour into the US at “Historic levels.”
The Gulf nations have committed to invest trillions of dollars in the US, though it remains unclear how much of that they will actually spend over the next several years.
Meanwhile, the US continues to bomb Iran in what appears to be a resumption of active conflict between both countries, despite an ongoing roadmap to end the conflict.
Reports say operatives of the Osun State Police Command, and those of the Department of State Services (DSS) had tracking the trail of Adeniyi Adeyemi, controversial Director General of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), for weeks, before he was eventually pulled out of his hole on Tuesday.
However, the duo, were said to have pulled back after failing to track him through his mobile phones, which he had reportedly switched off for about two days, making it difficult to locate him, leaving the stage for the members of the Police Intelligence Response Team (PI-RT) led by Moses Lohor, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP).
Lohor, said to have previously served as the Commander of the Anti-Kidnapping Squad of Osun State, and reported to have been involved in high-profile security operations and controversies, after taken over fielded his men to pick up signals from their well-oiled signal networks.
Regarded by many Osun residents as one of the key security officers who contributed significantly to the peace and stability enjoyed in Ilesa and other parts of the state during his tenure, he was said to have relied on his contacts before his transfer out of the state, said to have raised concerns from the public about the security situation he would be leaving behind.
His exit from the state was said to be hinged on an incident in 2024, in which he allegedly shot one Iyanda Alowonle, then Chairman of Osun State Motor Transport System, in the stomach at the police station in the state prompting an order for his arrest by then Inspector General of Police (IGP).
His effort was said to have paid off when he successfully tracked down the controversial PFIPC, boss, who was seen on Tuesday evening, in a shot video on social media undergoing interrogation, and eventually handed him over to Ibrahim Gotan, Commissioner of Police in the state.
The PUNCH quoted one of the sources as saying: “The arrest (of Adeyemi) took place on Tuesday morning by the IRT squad, who immediately moved him to Abuja. After he was arrested, he was taken to Ibadan and from there to Abuja.”
-
News6 days agoBREAKING: Mystery death! *Female student dies a day after arriving Umahi’s home!
-
News6 days agoDon’t jump to conclusion! *Umahi speaks on mysterious death of female students!
-
News3 weeks agoBREAKING: Court sentences Nigerien, two others to death over terrorism
-
News2 weeks agoBREAKING: EX-SSG mowed down by gunmen! *He resisted being kidnapped – driver
-
News4 weeks agoTwo hours after Igboho’s ‘red-eyes’ to ‘Fulani’ leaders, gunmen free kidnap victims!
-
News4 weeks agoAbductors of Oyo teachers panicking, freedom coming for victims soon!
-
News2 days agoBREAKING: Terrorists strikes another school! *Kidnap principal, students, NECO official!
-
News4 weeks agoChicagogate: Nigerians return to court! *Move to stop Tinubu from 2027 polls