Senator Solomon Adeola, the chairman of Senate Committee on Appropriations, has denied news report that the administration of former President Mohammadu Buhari borrowed $400 billion to stabilize the Naira against the dollar during his tenure.
Contrary to the report in some major newspapers and some online blogs on Saturday April 26,2025, the Senator at his Town Hall Meeting/ Mega Empowerment Programme with constituents in Ayetoro, Ogun State, speaking mostly in local Yoruba language, has justified the removal of oil subsidy and the floating of the exchange rate by the incumbent administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu saying without these bold fiscal policies, Nigerian economy was headed for a collapse.
Senator Adeola stated that previous administrations have been spending trillions of Naira on fuel subsidy and defending the Naira against the dollar adding that this was to the benefit of a very negligible number of Nigerians while Nigeria accumulated huge national debt.
According to his media office, “At no point did the Senator mention the name of the former President Buhari or made specific reference to his administration as incurring a debt of $400billion. It is therefore, clear that the debt figure attributed to former President Buhari administration is a misquotation from reporters’ translation of the Senator’s speech from Yoruba to English language”.
“The misquotation must have come about from confusing 40 for 400 in translation as the figure of debt for previous administrations. It is also noted that most of the reporters of the major newspapers that reported the misquotation did not personally attend the event and relied on some online blogs for their story.”
“Senator Adeola holds former President Buhari in high esteem and acknowledged his valiant efforts in piloting the economy under the circumstance he found it during his tenure.”