Special to USAfrica magazine (Houston) and USAfricaonline.com, the first African-owned, US-based newspaper published on the Internet.
Nigeria’s Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, has blamed the immediate past administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, a former military dictator and retired army General for the economic woes especially the high rates of inflation.
USAfrica notes that Edun, a confidant and key figure in the, so far, problematic “reforms” of President Bola Tinubu delivered what could be seen as the harshest public criticism of Buhari who handed over power to Tinubu.
Edun argued that Nigeria’s problems were complicated by Buhari whom he criticized for “aimlessly” printing trillions of the Naira “without productivity.”
He stated that it happened under Buhari’s presidency: “The N22.7 trillion printed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) through Ways and Means overdraft for the federal government from 2015 to 2023 landed Nigeria into hyper-inflation. We talked about inflation. Where has it come from? It came from 8 years of just printing money not matched by productivity. What happened was that for eight years, the weak were left to their own devices. It is the privileged few that took everything. That is the reality. So that money supply must be brought back.”
He spoke on Wednesday, March 6, 2024, at the Nigerian Senate Committee on Finance. He promised that “we are going to audit even the N22.7 trillion printed aimlessly.”
He said to the Committee: “You distinguished senators have helped. You have given us the mandate to raise N7 trillion which we will do by sucking money from the market, using it to pay back the CBN and giving the government a balanced book. We are going to audit even the N22.7 trillion printed aimlessly.” By Chido Nwangwu, USAfrica
