The presidential response to allegations of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu advising ex-President Muhammadu Buhari to print more naira notes in 2020 was swift.
Bayo Onanuga, a special adviser on information and strategy to the president, debunked these claims, categorizing them as “erroneous.”
This came in the wake of Paul Ibe, the spokesperson for Atiku Abubakar, the 2023 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, asserting that Tinubu had recommended the printing of Naira in 2020.
Ibe’s statement followed remarks by Wale Edun, the minister of finance and coordinating minister of the economy, who disclosed that N22.7 trillion had been printed under Buhari’s administration.
Edun argued that this massive amount, obtained through Ways and Means overdraft by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for the federal government from 2015 to 2023, played a role in Nigeria’s current hyperinflation crisis.
Claims circulating on the X platform suggested that Tinubu had urged the federal government, led by Buhari, to print more naira notes to bolster the economy amidst the escalating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Allegedly drawing a parallel with the United States Federal Reserve, Tinubu purportedly argued that, like the U.S., Nigeria could also resort to increasing its currency supply.In response to these assertions, Onanuga took to his X account on Thursday, March 7, to set the record straight.
He reminded the public that Tinubu had previously addressed this issue in 2020, stating unequivocally that he did not advise the Buhari administration to print Naira, contrary to the erroneous reports circulating at that time.
Tinubu’s clarification was published in Thisday on March 30, 2020, just a day after the initial false report emerged.
