By Chukwudi Nweje
Financial expert and public intellectual, Mr Tilewa Adebajo has said that Nigeria’s ways and means has gone 30 times higher that the legally allowed limit.
He called out the Senate for secretly approving President Bola Tinubu’s request to securitise Nigeria’s ways and means advances, and noted that the action would compound Nigeria’s indebtedness.
He said: “Ways and means was never supposed to exceed N1 trillion yet now it has surpassed N30 trillion, which is against Section 38 of the Central Bank of Nigeria Act. Under Section 38 of the CBN Act, the apex bank is granted the authority to borrow from the apex bank, but such overdraft should not surpass five per cent of the government’s revenue from the previous year.
“Ways and means financing is now 30 times more than is legally allowed. Securitisation of ways and means is an illegal act. Nigeria’s deficit is increasing annually. Now 95 per cent of Nigeria’s revenue yields is for debt service.
“The Senate approved the securitisation of ways and means which it should not have done. Securitisation means the government now issues treasury bills and bonds to pay off the ways and means.”
Adebajo stated this at the Audit Reporting Training of FrontFoot Media Initiative held in Lagos. The training, held in association with Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism and MacArthur Foundation, had the theme ‘X-raying State Governments Audit Reports.’
Adebajo stated that while Ways and Means is legal, securitising it is illegal. He said the Senate approved the measure secretly as it was not listed in the Senate Order Paper when it did so.”
Adebajo charged the media to live up to its responsibility of holding the government accountable
“While regular citizens cannot do much to stop the spendthrift direction of the federal and state governments, the media and professional groups should be more active in calling out misbehaviour and wrong direction.
In his contribution, Emeka Izeze, director and partner, said Government Audit Reports is a flagship capacity development programme of FrontFoot Media Initiative.