Edo North Senator Adams Oshiomhole haa attributed the collapse of the Nigerian currency, naira, to the excessive printing of money by the Central Bank of Nigeria under former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration through the Ways and Means policy.
This policy allowed the Federal Government to borrow from the CBN for emergency funding to cover delayed government receipts and fiscal deficits.
At a progressives governors forum’s meeting and interactive session in Benin City, Edo State, on Saturday, Oshiomhole blamed the policy for the eventual collapse of the Nigerian currency against the U.S. dollar.
Oshiomhole said that the past government printed over N31 trillion, leading to the naira’s collapse
He emphasised that this policy was akin to a situation where a government prints banknotes without backing resources, merely to meet financial obligations.
Oshiomhole likened Nigeria’s borrowing to “fish drinking water every day,” placing the burden of repayment on President Bola Tinubu’s administration to guarantee the nation’s sovereignty.
In 2024, the Senate established an ad-hoc committee to investigate the Ways and Means and Anchor Borrowers Programme of the apex bank.
Oshiomhole drew parallels between Buhari’s administration and Idi Amin’s Uganda or Zimbabwe, where printing more money without resources would render the currency worthless, like a sheet of paper.
“We are coming from a country that was almost like Zimbabwe or Idi Amin’s Uganda where he asked the Central Bank governor ‘go and print more money for us to share to the people. ‘if we print more money, Uganda currency will be like a sheet of paper’.
“This is what the immediate past CBN governor was doing. In the Senate, we have the record that they printed over N31 trillion which they called Ways and Means. You know when the government wants to deceive people they use jargon.
“They called it Ways and Means but I can tell you what it means: it means a situation in which the government prints banknotes, not based on what we have earned or any resources, just print banknotes to go and share to the people to meet their money illusion.
”It is the result of that excessive printing of banknotes that led to the collapse of the naira,” Oshiomhole said.
He emphasised that this reckless money printing led to the naira’s collapse against the U.S. dollar.
