Anambra State Governor Charles Soludo says President Bola Tinubu-led administration inherited a “dead economy” from his predecessors who “violated” rules by repeatedly printing money “brazenly”.
Mr Soludo made this assertion on Thursday during an interview with Channels Television, where he evaluated the policies of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
“We sat all of us watching the CBN brazenly and illegally violate that act year on year out and kept printing money; that is when advance money is backed by nothing; you just credit the federal government with trillions; N4 trillion, N10 trillion, N15 trillion, and we keep going,” said the governor.
Although the governor did not specifically name any of Mr Tinubu’s predecessors in his submission, Peoples Gazette in 2021 reported how former Transport Minister Rotimi Amaechi was caught on tape admitting that President Muhammadu Buhari always ordered the CBN to keep printing money since 2015.
“And most of you didn’t know at the time we took over; most Nigerians don’t even know because we have sworn to an oath not to tell anybody we were printing money,” said Mr Amaechi.
Mr Soludo, a former deputy governor of the apex bank, likened the current government’s assumption of office to inheriting a dead horse that people did not know was dead.
“And to prevent us from where we are today, that is why we had an explicit clause there that prevents Central Bank from lending recklessly to the federal government,” the governor said.
He added, “This particular government inherited a dead economy from a macroeconomic point of view; this government inherited a dead horse that was seen standing, but people didn’t know that it was dead. I think it’s important for Nigerians to understand this, and it is not a tea party.”
