Reckless Naira Printing: APC, Buhari, Nigeria owe Obaseki an apology
Almost three years ago, a certain lone voice was crying in the wilderness of Nigeria, calling all to action against a lethargic, rudderless, and reckless regime.
Time is proving that the regime of General Muhammadu Buhari came with no ideas of how to lead Nigeria.
It’s unpardonable shame to all the champions of the ‘Buhari the messiah’ campaign. No need to name names. They all know themselves. I am sure they all cower in shame if they have a modicum of conscience.
On April 7, 2021, Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State first raised the alarm that Buhari’s regime, the worst any country can have by any standard, printed N60 billion to share to states, LGAs, and the federal government during the monthly money-sharing ritual that has kept Nigeria crawling.
Obaseki’s warning didn’t stop there. He added a prophetic dimension that the naira would soon slump to N1,000 to the US dollar and would worsen to N2,000 if the reckless way of Buhari was not checked. The exactitude is quite amazing.
However, all of us, including the opposition in the National Assembly kept mute. Some didn’t believe him, some shouted him down and others felt his voice wasn’t loud enough, and possibly an alarmist that should not be taken seriously.
The finance minister of the regime, Zainab Ahmed, who by now should be questioned or facing trial if the current team was not there to protect Buhari’s profligacy, came hard on Obaseki, calling him a liar and politicking with the nation’s interest.
Obaseki, with his background in banking and economics, and his high position as governor privy to top intelligence was emphatic that Buhari did just two things – borrow and share, print money and share. He was concerned that no economy operates that way and survives.
Everyone was quiet while the APC and presidency lambasted him and called for his head on a platter for being an enemy of Nigeria.
Today, we know who meant well for Nigeria and who the enemy was and is.
In less than a week ago, another governor who is grounded enough to know, Alex Otti of Abia State, a top banker, during an interview with a TV station re-enforced the issue, lamenting that the quantity of money Buhari printed recklessly is what is compounding the naira free fall at the forex market.
He was specific that N30 trillion excess money was printed by Buhari. Caleb Mutfwang, governor of Plateau State corroborated this figure. The witnesses of many have confirmed the truth.
On the day the issue came up at the Senate, someone in defence argued that the figure was not correct, and instead corrected that it was N23 trillion that was printed. He was part of the ruinous Buhari team. What is the difference, and was the amount he admitted was printed done by the rules? That he didn’t explain.
Those who foreknew that Buhari was grossly incompetent to manage a country have been proven right. His destruction came full circle – hunger, hardship, destroyed economy, insecurity, gross and unpretentious nepotism. No doubt, Buhari and his kinsmen who were in charge regrettably managed Nigeria into this dark bottomless pit. These are the ones that killed Nigeria’s economy eventually. Deploying his nepotistic hate that excluded most parts of Nigeria, he accomplished the task with his kinsmen. Let us call a spade its true name.
The way this administration has been quiet about calling Buhari to account for this destruction confirms why the past regime worked so hard to ensure that the APC candidate succeeded him.
PDP wasn’t anything wonderful, but APC is something no dictionary has a fit word to describe its unfitness.
Buhari and his party must apologise to Obaseki for calling him a liar when they were actually the real liars. If Nigeria had a common agenda, we should also apologise to Obaseki for neglecting his early warnings and sitting docile and supine until the Buhari calamity overwhelmed
