Emir Sanusi said this while delivering his address at the ongoing third National Treasury Workshop, organised by the office of the Accountant General of the Federation in Kano .

He said, “In 2011 when I was CBN governor, Nigeria made $16bn from petroleum sales, and we spent $ 8bn importing petroleum and spent another $8.2bn subsidising the product…and I asked , ‘Is this sustainable? The country is bankrupt and we are heading to bankruptcy. What happens is that the Federal Government do pay petroleum subsidy, pays electricity tariff subsidy, and if there is a rise in interest rates, the Federal Government pays. What is more life – threatening than the subsidy that we have to sacrifice education, health sector and infrastructure for us to have cheap petroleum? If truly President Buhari is fighting poverty, he should remove the risk on the national financial sector and stop the subsidy regime , which is fraudulent.”