Emmanuel OchayiRenowned financial expert and public intellectual, Mr. Tilewa Adebajo, has expressed his dismay over the secret approval granted by the Senate to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s request to securitize Nigeria’s Ways and Means advances.
Adebajo brought this issue to light during the Audit Reporting Training of the FrontFoot Media Initiative held on October 25-26, 2023, at the GulfView Hotel in Ikeja GRA.
Adebajo emphasized that this covert approval effectively sanctions the conversion of Nigeria’s Ways and Means of Indebtedness into further loans in the form of bonds and other securities. He stated, “Securitization means the government now issues treasury bills and bonds to pay off the Ways and Means.”
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Notably, Adebajo highlighted that the Ways and Means facility was never intended to exceed one trillion Naira, but it has now ballooned to over thirty trillion Naira, in clear violation of Section 38 of the Central Bank of Nigeria Act. Under this section, the Central Bank has the authority to borrow from the government, but such overdrafts should not exceed five percent of the government’s revenue from the previous year. Adebajo asserted that the Senate’s approval of the securitization of Ways and Means is a breach of these regulations.
During his address, Adebajo expressed concern that the Senate had approved this measure secretly, as it was not included in the Senate Order Paper when the decision was made. He stressed, “Ways and Means financing is now 30 times more than is legally allowed. Securitization of Ways and Means is an illegal act, and Nigeria’s deficit is increasing annually, with ninety-five percent of the country’s revenue going towards servicing debt.”
Adebajo called for greater vigilance from the media and professional groups, as he believed that ordinary citizens are too preoccupied with their daily struggles to effectively address the financial mismanagement at the federal and state levels.
He urged the media and the elite to be more proactive in holding the government accountable, stating, “The key responsibility falls on the media and the elite. The elite have compromised, and the media are not pulling their weight.”
Nevertheless, Adebajo encouraged citizens to pay closer attention to Nigeria’s financial management. He advised, “Anytime you have a budget, ask for the audited accounts for the same year to juxtapose. What did you say you were going to do? What did you do? What revenue target did you project? What was the actual revenue? What was the expenditure projection? What was spent and on what?”
In closing, Emeka Izeze, director and partner, confirmed that the Audit Reporting Training: X-Raying State Government Audit Reports is a flagship capacity development program of the FrontFoot Media Initiative, carried out under the auspices of the Wole Soyinka Center for Investigative Journalism and sponsored by the MacArthur Foundation.
This Lagos workshop is the fourth in a series aimed at training the media to closely scrutinize audit reports for their significance, with previous workshops held in Benin, Awka, and Abuja, FCT.
This revelation by Tilewa Adebajo sheds light on a concerning financial development, and its implications are sure to capture the attention of both the public and policymakers.
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