BENIN CITY, Nigeria — Senator Adams Oshiomhole, the legislator representing Edo North, has attributed the collapse of the naira and the ongoing cost of living crisis to excessive money printing and borrowing under former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
Speaking at the Progressives Governors Forum’s interactive session in Edo State on Saturday, June 28, 2025, Oshiomhole criticised the previous administration’s reliance on the “ways and means” provision of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which allowed the federal government to borrow directly from the apex bank without legislative approval.
“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’,” Oshiomhole said.
“The governor said, ‘if we print more money, Uganda currency will be like a sheet of paper.’ This is what the immediate past CBN government was doing.”
He revealed that more than ₦31 trillion was printed under the guise of ways and means, adding that the term was deliberately opaque.
“They call it ways and means, but I can tell you what it means. It means a situation in which government print banknotes, not based on what we are earning or any resources.”
According to Oshiomhole, this excessive monetary expansion without corresponding revenue or reserves led to the sharp depreciation of the naira.
“You print more naira, and you have limited dollars. You use this more naira to change few dollars. So what happens? The price of the dollar went up, and the value of the naira went down,” he explained.
Oshiomhole also criticised Buhari’s fiscal management, noting that the country accumulated debt at an unsustainable pace.
“Nigeria was borrowing every day the way fish drink water,” he said.
“Today, it has been the burden of President Bola Tinubu to pay back those loans, in order to guarantee the sovereignty of our nation.”
The former Edo State governor praised President Tinubu for instituting transparency in federal finances, particularly in the area of revenue allocation.
“All governors now agree that under President Bola Tinubu, there is more transparency in revenue allocation,” he said.
Oshiomhole also took aim at the now-defunct naira redesign policy, implemented during Buhari’s final year in office, which he said rendered people’s savings invalid in a country where over 40 percent of local governments lack access to banking services.
“Before Tinubu, even the money you earned, Buhari and the former CBN governor told you your money had expired,” he said.
“Bola Ahmed Tinubu has renewed the validity of that money.”
The senator defended Tinubu’s controversial exchange rate unification policy, arguing that the previous dual-rate system benefited the elite.
“The dual rates, which benefited the rich and connected, have been abolished,” he said.
He concluded by urging citizens to understand and appreciate the direction of current economic reforms and to educate others on Nigeria’s financial trajectory.
“The pain we are going through now is the price for recklessness of the past. But the truth must be told, and the right path must be supported,” Oshiomhole stated.
