Furore over Buhari’s N23tr Ways and Means in 8 yrs

..How 9th Senate approved loans in arrears weeks to end of tenure

..Akpabio, Saraki tackle Lawan

By Haruna Salami

The chicken may finally be coming home to roost over the gross abuse associated with loan facilities (Ways and Means) to the Federal Government by the Central Bank of Nigeria under ex-President Buhari’s presidency.

Ways and Means as a public expenditure instrument is well-conceived to help the Federal Government of Nigeria overcome budgetary hurdle and allow government to run smoothly.

In a lay man’s language, it is a provision in section 38 (1) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Act that allows the apex bank to lend to the Federal Government (FG) up to 5% of the revenue of the preceding year in emergency situation such as delay in the release of budgetary allocation. This explains why the CBN is usually referred as to as lender of the last resort.

However, the FG, by law is expected to repay the loan within a short period before it can borrow another one.

Unfortunately, abuse set in in the last few years, especially under President Muhammadu Buhari when the FG borrowed more than 5% of the previous year’s revenue without any record of repayment. It even became worse when the apex bank lent yet others to the FG when the previous ones have not been repaid.

At the close of business of the Buhari administration’s 8 years, the total indebtedness of the FG to the CBN through Ways and Means was N23 trillion. This was expenditure outside the annual budgetary rituals.

However, Buhari, knowing the implications of spending public funds under any guise without National Assembly approval, then rushed to the Senate for the approval at the last days of his 8 year term.

Remember the popular reported remarks by President Buhari that he didn’t want anyone to call him to come and explain anything after leaving office, and if anyone disturbed him he would cross to Niger Republic.

But the last Senate did not fail Buhari as they sat long hours to ensure the Ways and Means expenditure was approved in arrears before Buhari bowed out.

READ ALSO: Movie producer, Busayo Odu, responds to actress…

The role of the 9th Senate that approved all the requests for Buhari came under serious attack by members of the upper chamber on Tuesday February 20, 2024.

The 9th Senate under Ahmed Lawan (Yobe North) supervised the abuse of the Ways and Means by President Buhari. In fact, the Senate then aided the executive when it failed in its oversight function to stop the CBN from lending more to FG more than 5% and also lending new money when the previous one has not been repaid according to CBN Act.

The Ahmed Lawan led Senate went ahead to amend the CBN Act to raise the bar of what the FG could borrow to 15% in arrears i.e to cover the abuse of the law which the FG already committed.

Instead of sanctions, the FG was given “expeditious approval” by the Senate to borrow more money from the CBN, local and foreign sources.

What played out on Tuesday February 20, 2024 at the Senate plenary when the discussion of its Joint Committees on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions, Finance, National Planning, Agriculture and Appropriation, which snowballed into setting up a committee to investigate Ways and Means was not surprising.

Senators who spoke one after the other condemned how the 9th Senate aided the Buhari administration to abuse Ways and Means and finally tried to legitimize it through the approval of N23 trillion shortly before the end of the government.

This is in contravention of section 38 (2) of the CBN Act that makes it clear that the total amount of Ways and Means advances outstanding shall not at any time exceed 5% of the previous year’s actual revenue of the FG.

However, Buhari overshot the 5% ceiling and grew ways and means from less than one trillion naira to N23 trillion in just 7 years.

With the obvious abuse of the Ways and Means as discussed by the senators, Akpabio said “with the situation we are in the country, we need to do everything to remedy the situation, including probing the ways and Means, adding that “the 10th Senate cannot be a rubber stamp to anyone”.

He said what the 9th Senate did put Nigeria in the “mess” it currency finds itself.

Obviously, Senator Lawan who led the 9th Senate did not find the bashing of the Ways and Means policy and the role of the 9th Senate funny, especially after reference to rubber stamp, the euphemism associated with the way and manner it gave “expeditious” approval to every request from Buhari without scrutiny.

It was not surprising when Lawan was given the opportunity to speak, he spoke on two issues. One, he said he was not opposed to the decision of the Senate to probe Ways and Means, adding “there is nothing the National Assembly can legislate on that it cannot investigate”.

Secondly, he said what the 9th Senate approved as Ways and Means was N22 trillion and another N819 billion for infrastructural development, not N30 trillion Akpabio was saying.

Lawan then hit back at Akpabio when he said “what Nigerians need now is food and security. We are in the present and the present is unpleasant”.

However, former Senate President, Bukola Saraki has reacted to the recent drama and accusations surrounding the Senate’s approval of Ways and Means loans to the executive.

Saraki stated that the saga shows that the legislature failed in the vital oversight role of transparency and accountability.

Saraki, who was President of the 8th Senate, was of the view that the 9th Senate failed in this responsibility by approving the advances without sufficient details.

Meanwhile, Coalition of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) on Friday in Abuja , called on the National Assembly to probe the $3.4 billion loan collected by the Federal Government from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), in April 2020 without proof of spending from it on anything .

The nine CSOs led by the Executive Director of Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, at the media briefing, alleged that the incessant loan collections by the FG, made the debt profile of the country to presently stands at N87.9 trillion which is equivalent to $114.3billion.