Soludo blames Nigeria’s ‘dead horse’ economy on illegal money printing

Governor Charles Soludo of Anambra State has remarked that the current administration led by President Bola Tinubu inherited a dead economy from its predecessors. He blamed the previous CBN administration’s illegal printing of money as part of why the economy was ‘killed’.

Soludo conveyed this statement on Thursday during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today program, discussing the Central Bank of Nigeria’s policies.

“This economy inherited a dead economy. From a macroeconomic point of view, this government inherited a dead horse that was still standing, and people didn’t know it was dead,” the former CBN governor stressed.

“Because you can’t pour water on a rock and not expect the rock not to be wet, there are humungous challenges, and I think it is important that Nigerians understand this and it is not a tea party.”

“We sat here in this country and  saw  the monetary authorities printing money, illegally, I must say because I superintended the development of  drafting of the 2007 Bank Act.”

“And to prevent us from where we are today, we had an explicit clause that prevents Central Bank from lending recklessly to the Federal Government.

“That you can not grant more than 5 per cent of the previous year’s actual revenue to the Federal Government.”

Soludo, while clarifying his actions in overseeing monetary regulations during his tenure as head of the apex bank from 2004 to 2009, alleged that the CBN engaged in unauthorized money printing.

“We must realise where we are coming from,” he said.

Read also:Soludo approves resuscitation of 68 moribund water schemes in Anambra

He continued to emphasize that the CBN disregarded the provisions of the 2007 CBN Act, asserting that the present monetary course could have been prevented from the outset.

“We all witnessed the CBN openly and unlawfully flout that law repeatedly by continuously printing money,” the governor remarked.

“As the government’s account was consistently credited, from one trillion to two trillion, ten trillion, fifteen trillion, and even up to twenty trillion, the cycle persisted.”