Understanding why the Naira is falling

By Reno Omokri

Many Nigerians don’t even know that the Buhari administration had an oil swap deal in place by which they had collected money upfront for future oil sales. As of today, and for the next few months, Nigeria is not getting income for oil sales. Buhari already collected the money. Please research it. Not done, that regime printed trillions of Naira just like that. Money that was not backed up by production, gold, or dollars. They just flooded the economy with paper that only diluted the Naira already in circulation.

And unknown to Nigerians, our foreign reserves are nowhere where Buhari claimed. They collected loans from foreign commercial banks, and our reserves have a lien on them. Meaning that we actually have only 10% of the $37 billion Buhari claimed he handed over.

Even if we want to continue the Buhari regime’s practice of defending the Naira with $1.5 billion every month, Nigeria simply does not have the money to do it. If we don’t float the Naira, our economy will just collapse, yakata!

And why were they spending $1.5 billion to prop up the Naira monthly? Partly because that was their avenue for rent-seeking. Buhari’s government gave their cronies dollars at the official rate, and they, in turn, sold it at the parallel market. They were making money without creating value! People close to Buhari. Some even related to him.

If President Jonathan had done what Buhari did to our economy, Buhari would have jailed him!