The Senate on Tuesday resolved to probe how the N30tn Ways and Means loans of the Central Bank of Nigeria was obtained and spent by the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.
The development came as a biting food crisis, rising inflation, naira depreciation and worsening insecurity continue to take a toll on Nigerians.
Tinubu’s cabinet members have continued to argue that the current crises were exacerbated by the gross mismanagement of the Buhari administration, arguing that the current reforms were meant to right the wrongs of the past administration.
For starters, “ways and means” in the Nigerian context occurs when the federal government obtains loans from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The federal government is allowed to borrow from the apex bank through “ways and means” to meet short-term needs or emergencies. This explains why the CBN is known as the “lender of last resort.”
The Senate stated that the reckless spending of the overdraft collected from the CBN under Godwin Emefiele largely accounted for the food and security crises the country was currently facing.
The red chamber then resolved to set up an ad hoc committee to investigate what the N30 trillion overdraft was spent on by the government, noting that the details of the spending were deliberately not made available to the National Assembly.
The latest move by the Senate is expected to unravel the ways the country and its resources were allegedly mismanaged by the Buhari administration.
Buhari had in a letter to the National Assembly in January 2023 requested that the N22.7 trillion Ways and Means loan be converted to a 40-year bond with a moratorium of three years.
Following the request, the House of Representatives on May 4, 2023, approved the conversion of the N23.7trn loan to a long-term bond for 40 years at the rate of nine per cent per annum.
Read more: https://dailytrust.com/how-50bn-equivalent-was-printed-and-fritted-in-ways-and-means/
