The Presidency has responded to allegations that President Bola Tinubu advised former President Muhammadu Buhari to print Naira in 2020, dismissing such claims as erroneous. Bayo Onanuga, a Special Adviser on Information and Strategy to the President, clarified the issue.

The claim stemmed from a statement made by Paul Ibe, a spokesperson for Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the 2023 elections. Ibe had alleged that Tinubu advised Buhari to print Naira in 2020. This came after Finance Minister Wale Edun commented on the printing of N22.7 trillion under Buhari’s administration.

During an interaction with the Senate Committee on Finance, Edun attributed the current rise in inflation and economic hardship in Nigeria to the Ways and Means loan of N22.7 trillion issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria under Buhari’s government, including during the tenure of former CBN governor Godwin Emefiele. Edun criticized the past administration’s indiscriminate use of overdrafts from the CBN, which he claimed contributed significantly to the country’s food and security crises.

The minister pledged that Tinubu’s government would conduct an audit of CBN printing over the past eight years. In response, Onanuga referred to Tinubu’s previous clarification on the matter, stating that the President did not advise the Buhari administration to print Naira, as erroneously reported in 2020. Tinubu’s clarification was published in Thisday on March 30, 2020, a day after the false report emerged.