The Emir of Kano, Mallam Muhammad Sanusi II says Nigeria is on the verge of bankruptcy as debt servicing, fuel and electricity subsidies continue to eat into the nation’s revenue.

Sanusi, a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria issued the warning 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  advised the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari to, as a matter of urgency scrap fuel and electricity tariff subsidies in order to stabilize the economy.

He said: “In 2011 when I was CBN Governor, Nigeria made $16 billion from petroleum sales and we spent $8 billion importing petroleum and spent another $8.2 billion subsidizing 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.”

He added: “We need to ask these questions; why are there high mortality rates, malnutrition, high rate of out-of-school children among others while the national treasury goes to petroleum sector ?

“In 2016, we were told that we are consuming 28 million litres of petrol per day and just a few weeks ago, we were told that it has jerked up to 60 million litres daily.

“What went wrong? Since I have decided to come here, you have to accept what I have said here and please if you do not want to hear the truth, never invite me.”