Sanusi blasts Osinbajo, others for snubbing investors

The Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II has reportedly lashed out at Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and some ministers for failing to turn up at a meeting with investors in Washington.

It would be recalled that Nigerian Embassy in the US had organized an investment programme on Saturday, April 21, where Prof. Osinbajo, Audu Ogbeh, Kemi Adeosun, Godwin Emefiele, Babatunde Fashola, Ibe Kachikwu, Kayode Fayemi, Ogbonnaya Onu, Lai Mohammed and Yewande Sadiku of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission, who all had sessions at the event failed to show up.

National Daily learnt that it was only the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi that showed up at the meeting.

Reacting to the absence of the Nigerian delegation, Sanusi said Nigeria might lose investors because of tardiness and lackadaisical attitude.

“You invite top investors, your ministers are in Washington and they do not come to talk to the investors about Nigeria. That is not how you attract investors. If you have this forum in the Rwandan embassy, I assure you President Kagame himself would be there telling people to come to Rwanda.”

The former Central Bank of Nigeria governor said there was no reason for the officials to miss the meeting.
He said: “We had a meeting today with investors, we were supposed to start by 9am; we started at 10. When I came in, they took me to the ambassador’s office to sit, when investors were waiting there. We had a list of people who were to be here, Vice-President, ministers, some of them are in town, but they haven’t come up.

“Sometimes, it is about how we market ourselves, how we package ourselves. There is absolutely no reason for the Nigerian embassy to arrange a ‘Nigeria is open for Business’ forum with ministers in town, with governors in town, and not have the coordination that they are actually here to meet with these investors.

“An investor may decide that rather than go through the hassle of investing $500 million in Nigeria, why not put $100 million in Ghana, $100 million in Rwanda, $100 million in Cote d’Ivore, just to have diversification benefit and the benefit of reaching out,” the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria said.