Speaking during the Progressive Governors Forum’s Meeting and Interactive Session held in Benin City on Saturday, June 28, 2025, Oshiomhole alleged that the excessive printing of money by the CBN under former was tantamount to reckless monetary policy, comparing it to failed regimes in Zimbabwe and .
“We are coming from a country that was almost like Zimbabwe or Idi Amin’s Uganda, where he asked the Central Bank governor, ‘go and print more money for us to share to the people’. And the governor said, ‘If we print more money, Uganda currency will be like a sheet of paper. This is what the immediate past CBN governor was doing. In the Senate, we have the record that they printed over ₦31 trillion, which they called Ways and Means,” Oshiomhole said.
Ways and Means provisions allow the federal government to borrow short-term funds from the to cover urgent budget shortfalls. However, a 2024 Senate ad-hoc committee report revealed that over ₦31 trillion was printed under this provision by the previous administration, a move Oshiomhole described as deceptive and disastrous.
“When the government wants to deceive people, they use jargon. They called it Ways and Means but I can tell you what it means: it means printing banknotes not based on earned revenue or resources, but simply to meet money illusion,” he added.
Oshiomhole asserted that the influx of unbacked currency led directly to the and , which continue to fuel Nigeria’s economic woes.
“To understand the root cause of the present cost of living and the exchange rate regime, you must trace it and locate it in terms of the excessive amount of banknotes through so-called Ways and Means, which the past government created and which this government has eliminated,” he said.
