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Prof Charles Soludo, Anambra State Governor, stated that the economy inherited by President Bola Tinubu’s administration was lifeless due to the actions of its predecessors.
This statement was made by Soludo on Thursday during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today, where he discussed the policies of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
‘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.
Read also: Soludo Tables ₦410B 2024 Budget To Anambra House Of Assembly
‘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.’
Soludo, when describing his role in implementing controls on monetary structures from 2004 to 2009 as the apex bank’s chief, made the assertion that the CBN had illegally printed money.
‘We must realise where we are coming from,’ he said.
‘We sat here in this country and saw the monetary authorities literally 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, that is why we had an explicit clause there that prevents Central Bank from lending recklessly to the Federal Government.’
‘That you can not grant to the Federal Government more than 5 per cent of the previous year’s actual revenue.’
He reiterated that the CBN violated the 2007 CBN Act, underscoring that the current trajectory in monetary affairs was entirely avoidable.
‘We all sat here and saw how the CBN brazenly, illegally violated that law year after year and kept on printing money,’ the governor said.
‘When you continue to credit the account of government, one trillion people shouted, two trillion,10 trillion, 15 trillion and 20 trillion and we kept going.’
