The Senate has appointed Senator Jibrin Isah (Kogi East) as chairman of its Ad-hoc Committee to probe the N30 trillion ‘Ways and Means’ loans to the Federal Government during the former President Muhammadu Buhari administration.
The constitution of the committee at Tuesday’s plenary was a follow-up of the adopted resolution on Tuesday last week, of the need to probe the Ways and Means of the former President Buhari administration.
The Ways and Means is an overdraft taken directly from the Central Bank of Nigeria to solve contingency needs of the nation, which was pegged at 5% of the previous year’s revenue and must be repaid before new a new one can be taken.
However, last week’s debate on Ways and Means snowballed into confusion and rowdy session when the motion was raised without details of how the fund was spent, a development that infuriated Senator Ali Ndume (Borno South) who insisted that details of Ways and Means must be provided according to parliamentary rules.
In his remark before announcing membership of the Committee, the Deputy Senate President, Jibrin Barau who presided over the plenary in absence of Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, lamented alleged reckless spending that had caused inflation in the country.
He said, Ways and Means would continue to be recorded in the balance sheet of the Central Bank of Nigeria, until it is completely liquidated, while he tasked the committee to do a thorough job with a view to recover the fund.
He said “according to statistics, broad money supply, which is a key parameter for key inflationary trends, increased from N78.3 – 78.4 trillion in 2023, the highest ever recorded in Nigeria. The Central Bank of Nigeria’s Ways and Means which provides direct lending to the Federal Government of Nigeria causes unprecedented liquidity in the economy and the current inflationary pressure that we are experiencing.
“The financial obligation to the CBN now stands at N30 trillion. The inability to repay this temporary accommodation by the Federal Government of Nigeria led to the regularization of a 40 year loan at 9 percent interest per annum.
“By implication, this debt will appear in the balance sheet of CBN for the next 40 years until liquidated. It is therefore imperative to interrogate the loans of the N30 trillion Ways and Means with a possibility of recovering whatever possible”.
Other Senators who were announced as members of the Ad-hoc Committee are: Senator Ekpeyong Asuquo, Mohammed Tahir Monguno, Victor Umeh, Olamilekan Adeola, Sani Mohammed Musa, Aliyu Wadada, Abdul Ningi and Ipalibo Banigo Harry.
They were given four weeks to turn in their report for legislative debate.
By Haruna Salami
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