Former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has blamed the administration of late President Muhammadu Buhari for the collapse of the naira.
He said the economic downturn was a result of reckless policies implemented under Buhari’s government.
Dogara, speaking on Tuesday at the inaugural parliamentary lecture of the House of Representatives Press Corps (HORPC), revealed that N22.7 trillion was printed and injected into the economy under Buhari through “Ways and Means.”
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He said the move eroded the value of the currency.
According to him, “By the time President Tinubu took office, the economic debris of the nation had become too conspicuous to be ignored.
“N22.7 trillion had been printed and injected into the economy in the name of Ways and Means, thereby destroying the value of the naira in our pockets.”
He further criticised the dual exchange rate operated under Buhari, describing it as a system that benefitted a select few.
“The dual exchange rate meant that some anointed people were making hundreds of millions of naira off forex allocations from the CBN without producing any goods or offering any services whatsoever,” Dogara said.
The former Speaker argued that loans secured to defend the naira were unsustainable.
“Some of the foreign loans had been procured in order to help strengthen the naira, a measure that could only be sustained by voodoo economics,” he noted.
Dogara, who now chairs the National Credit Guarantee Company (NCGC), commended President Bola Tinubu’s administration for attempting bold economic reforms.
He explained that the presidential committee on fiscal policy and tax reform led by Taiwo Oyedele had proposed “revolutionary reforms” to overhaul Nigeria’s tax system.
He stressed that those opposing Tinubu’s reforms were only doing so “hoping he would fail.”
