Nigeria Needs Lagos More Than Niger Delta – Sanusi

The Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi, has said
that the success story of governance in Lagos
State has positioned it as the leading state in the country, adding that Nigeria needs the state more than the oil-rich Niger Delta.
Speaking last week while delivering a paper
entitled: "Nigeria In Search of New Growth
model" at the 15th meeting of the Joint Planning
Board and National Council on Development
Planning in Kano State, the monarch said
although every part of the country is important,
people should not, however, be obsessed by a
resource.

While highlighting that Lagos can do without the
rest of the country based on its resources and
pragmatic style of governance, he urged that
Nigeria must not let Lagos go off the
federation.His words: "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
potential of an alternative model. "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. So,
those few people who are trying to break up this
country over oil, after sometime, that oil will be
worthless.
You are better off being in a country that is based
on this model. This is a country of the future, that
is the past." The former Central Bank of Nigeria
(CBN) governor explained in his paper that the
model of governance in Lagos State should be
adopted by the Federal Government and other
states in the federation, stressing that infusion of
such model would ensure transparency,
consistency and regulation. According to the
emir, "Lagos has done very well.
If I have money to invest, I will invest it in Lagos,
because it is attracting investment. Lagos has
realised a long time ago that government cannot
fund all its needs. And I just love what Lagos has
done. The Lagos story is a story of what Nigeria
can do with itself – transparency, consistency,
regulations – and people can be rich.
"There is no problem if people can be rich while
growing an economy. Nobody minds. But, in
Nigeria, people become rich when people are
dying. Let's take the Lagos story and that's why
today, Lagos State is 30 per cent Nigerian non-oil
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Lagos can do
without oil."
The monarch also stressed the need for the
availability of power supply as one of the
panaceas for growth in the country, faulting,
however, the process of privatisation of the
power sector by the immediate past
administration. "Look at power generation.
That is where we need to focus on. Let's get the
power reports back on track. Fantastic policy.
Power was privatised. What happened? People
bought DISCOs (distribution companies), because
they had connections," he said.