The Senate has resolved to probe how the N30tn Ways and Means loans of the Central Bank of Nigeria were obtained and spent by the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.
Ways and Means is a loan facility through which the CBN finances the government’s budget shortfalls.
The senate stated that the reckless spending of the overdraft collected from the CBN under Godwin Emefiele largely accounted for the food and security crises the country was currently facing.
The red chamber then resolved to set up an ad hoc committee to investigate what the N30tn overdraft was spent on by the immediate past government, noting that the details of the spending were deliberately not made available to the National Assembly.
The ad-hoc committee which will be constituted on Wednesday (today) will also probe the N10tn expended on the Anchor Borrowers Scheme, the $2.4bn forex transaction out of the $7bn obligation made for that purpose as well as other intervention programmes.
However, the Senate’s resolutions on Tuesday followed the consideration of the report of its Joint Committee on Banking, Insurance and Other Financial Institutions, Finance, National Planning, Agriculture and Appropriation on State of the Economy after interactive sessions held with the Federal Government economic management team.
However, consideration of the report during the plenary was stormy with accusations and counter-accusations by Senators on how the N22.7tn Ways and Means was passed by the 9th Senate in May 2023.
The lawmakers were also miffed by the passage of N7.2tn on December 30, 2023, by the 10th Senate.
Specifically, the Whip of the Senate, Senator Ali Ndume (APC Borno South), in his contribution blamed the Senate for approving the request without details from former President Buhari.
Ndume said, “When the N22.7trn Ways and Means approval request was brought before the 9th Senate, I insisted that details of spending made with it should be provided before approval but the Senate then went ahead and approved it.”
