Oshiomhole Holds Buhari Administration Responsible For Naira Collapse

Senator Adams Oshiomhole, representing Edo North Senatorial District, has attributed the collapse of the naira to the reckless monetary policies pursued under the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari, particularly the overreliance on the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Ways and Means provision.

Speaking on Saturday at the Progressive Governors Forum Meeting and Interactive Session in Benin City, Edo State, the former Edo State Governor and ex-President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) said the excessive printing of money by the CBN significantly devalued the Nigerian currency.

“We are emerging from a situation akin to Zimbabwe or Idi Amin’s Uganda, where central banks were instructed to print more money for political expediency,” Oshiomhole stated. “The result is that our currency has become dangerously weakened.”

He argued that the prevailing cost-of-living crisis and the deteriorating exchange rate are direct consequences of the “unsustainable liquidity injection” implemented through the Ways and Means mechanism during the Buhari era.

Oshiomhole further decried the federal government’s borrowing practices under the previous administration, likening it to “a fish drinking water”—constant and excessive. He emphasized that the current administration under President Bola Tinubu now bears the burden of repaying these debts to preserve Nigeria’s fiscal independence.

It is worth noting that in 2024, the Senate inaugurated an ad hoc committee to probe the CBN’s Ways and Means financing as well as the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme.

The Ways and Means provision permits the federal government to obtain emergency short-term funding from the CBN in times of cash flow shortfalls or fiscal deficits.