The Emir of Kano, Alhaji Muhammadu Sanusi II, has urged the Federal Government to tolerate constructive criticism, warning against treating every comment on economic hardship as an attack on President Bola Tinubu.

Sanusi gave the advice virtually on Tuesday while addressing participants at the Oxford Global Think Tank Leadership Conference, organised by the Oxford Global Think Tank.

“It’s not every time people talk about poverty or talk about difficulty that they’re just enemies of the government or making an attack on the president. That is not how to respond to economic distress,” he said.

The monarch also questioned the scale of government expenditure, arguing that Nigeria could not achieve fiscal consolidation while spending without restraint.

Citing the World Bank, he said debt servicing consumed 124 per cent of federal government revenue in the first half of the year, warning that the country needed to urgently address debt sustainability and implement outstanding structural reforms.

Sanusi said economic reform should go beyond the removal of fuel subsidies and the liberalisation of the exchange rate, stressing that it must cover several other areas.

He urged the government to establish clear spending priorities and make deliberate choices among competing sectors, including roads, electricity, agriculture and technology.

According to him, every $10 billion spent on road infrastructure represents the same amount taken away from other sectors such as electricity and agriculture.

The former Central Bank of Nigeria governor acknowledged that Tinubu’s economic reforms had recorded measurable gains in GDP growth, inflation and foreign reserves.

He said GDP growth had increased from an average of 0.9 per cent under the previous administration to 4.5 per cent, while inflation had declined from above 30 per cent to 14.5 per cent.

“I think moving from an average growth rate of 0.9 per cent to 4.5 per cent is progress. Moving from inflation of over 30 per cent to 14.5 per cent is progress.”

“Moving from the point where in 2023 the central bank’s reserves were maybe negative to where we are now having reserves of $55 billion is progress.”

However, Sanusi stressed that poverty, hunger, maternal mortality, malnutrition, education and healthcare remained major challenges that the reforms had yet to address.

He added that the government should have introduced social safety net programmes from the outset to cushion the effects of the reforms on vulnerable Nigerians.