Tinubu also argued that he should be allowed to grade himself if he did his homework right
By Kehinde Okeowo
President Bola Tinubu on Monday night bragged about one of his accomplishments since he was voted into office by Nigerians.
According to him, for three straight months, he fulfilled Nigeria’s financial obligations without touching remittance by Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), or exploring Ways and Means from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Speaking during his first ever media parley with journalists, the president said he met Nigeria’s financial obligations without falling back to the old order.
“Push me to my brag mode, in the last three months, I’ve not taken a penny from NNPC before I meet my other obligations. To me, that is excellent.
“Without going into Ways and Means, I’ve met all obligations,” he boasted
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Asked whether he was scoring himself, Tinubu said he should grade himself if he did his homework right.
“In 2015, the money supply was about N19tn, and in 2023, it was N54tn. That’s a huge increase, a very huge increase. And then a substantial amount of that was through ways and means.
“So, essentially, the printing of money resulted in a huge amount of money chasing the same amount of goods or a relative amount of goods. I think that context is very important to have,” Tinubu said.
In September 2024, the Governor of CBN, Olayemi Cardoso blamed his embattled predecessor, Godwin Emefiele for harming the Nigerian economy through the excess printing of money and the pumping of liquidity into the system.
Ways and Means is the offering of short-term financing by the apex bank to the Federal Government to cover its budget shortfalls.
