Soludo made the remark during an interview on Channels TV’s Politics Today on Thursday while analysing the naira’s decline under the new government.
The former Central Bank of Nigeria chief blamed worsening indicators on past violations of the apex bank’s establishment law, which bars deficit financing above five per cent of prior year revenues.
He accused the CBN under past management of illegally granting trillions in unbacked financing despite legal restrictions, contributing to current woes.
Soludo argued that from a macroeconomic standpoint, the Tinubu regime inherited an economy already beyond revival before it assumed office.
He said, “We explicitly put into the law that you can’t grant the Federal Government more than five per cent of the previous year’s actual revenue. And that so granted must be retired by the end of the year in which it was granted. And when the Federal Government fails to retire, the Central Bank is forbidden by that law from further advancing ways and means. That was the law 2007 Act of the Central Bank.
“But we sat all of us Nigerians watching the CBN illegally and brazenly violating that Act year on year and kept on printing money. That is when advance money is backed by nothing; you just credit the Federal Government with trillions N 4 trillion, N10 trillion, N15 trillion and we keep going.
“I said it before. This particular government inherited a dead economy from a microeconomic point of view, this government inherited a dead horse that was seen standing but people didn’t know that it was dead. I think it’s important for Nigerians to understand this.”
Earlier this month, Tinubu while negotiating an infrastructure loan in Saudi Arabia had also stated his administration took over substantial fiscal and infrastructure deficits.
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