Senator Oshiomhole says Buhari’s excessive money printing under CBN’s Ways and Means policy crippled the naira, creating Tinubu’s debt repayment burden

Buhari money printing policy was directly responsible for the collapse of the naira, according to Senator Adams Oshiomhole, who criticised the Central Bank’s use of the controversial Ways and Means provision during the former president’s tenure.

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Speaking at the Progressive Governors Forum’s meeting and interactive session held in Benin City on Saturday, Oshiomhole said the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), under former President Muhammadu Buhari, printed money excessively under the guise of emergency funding. This, he said, weakened the local currency and fuelled the current economic crisis.

“We are coming from a country that was almost like Zimbabwe or Idi Amin’s Uganda, where he asked the Central Bank Governor to ‘go and print more money for us to share to the people’. And the Governor said, if we print more money, Uganda currency will be like a sheet of paper,” Oshiomhole remarked.

The senator, who represents Edo North and is a former governor of the state, traced the current cost-of-living crisis and the volatile exchange rate back to what he described as reckless monetary practices under Buhari’s leadership.

He said that the Ways and Means facility, which permits the Federal Government to borrow from the CBN to meet urgent funding needs, was abused and turned into an unsustainable financial lifeline.

This, he argued, forced the naira into free fall and left the Tinubu administration grappling with the consequences.

“To understand the root cause of the current exchange rate and inflation crisis, we must trace it to the excessive amount of banknotes printed through the so-called Ways and Means,” Oshiomhole said.

He added that Nigeria had been borrowing daily under Buhari “the way fish drinks water,” resulting in a massive debt burden that now rests on President Bola Tinubu’s shoulders. The senator stressed that servicing this debt is vital for preserving Nigeria’s financial sovereignty.

In 2024, the Senate set up an ad hoc committee to investigate both the Ways and Means facility and the CBN’s Anchor Borrowers Programme, amid growing concerns about the lack of transparency and the economic risks involved.

Under the existing law, the Central Bank may lend to the Federal Government for short-term funding gaps, but analysts say the Buhari-era administration bypassed limits and accountability checks.

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Oshiomhole’s comments have reignited debate over the long-term consequences of unchecked monetary expansion and the urgent need for reform within Nigeria’s fiscal and monetary frameworks.