By Ayobami Ife, Abeokuta
Senator Solomon Adeola (APC, Ogun West) 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.
The Daily Crucible reports that news report quoted the Senator as revealing that, “Not less than $400 billion was borrowed under the immediate past administration of President Muhammadu Buhari to stabilise the naira against the dollar, and this is a fiscal policy that has really left our country’s economy at not a good stead.”
Denying it, however, Adeola said that contrary to the report in some major newspapers and some online blogs on Saturday April 26,2025, he had while holding a Town Hall Meeting/ Mega Empowerment Programme with his constituents in Ayetoro, Ogun State, justified the removal of oil subsidy and the floating of the exchange rate by the present administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Speaking mostly in local Yoruba language at the meeting in Ayetoro, the Senate Committee Chairman on Appropriations, submitted that without those bold fiscal policies taken by President Tinubu, Nigerian economy was headed for a collapse.
Adeola who is the Aremo of Yewaland clarified that previous administrations spent trillions of naira on fuel subsidy and defended 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.
Refuting the misleading media reports further through a statement on Monday by his media aide, Chief Kayode Odunaro, he stated that at no point did he mention the name of former President Buhari or make specific reference to his administration as incurring a debt of $400billion.
He noted 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.”
According to him, the misquotation must have come about from confusing 40 for 400 in translation as the figure of debt for previous administrations.
Adeola popularly called YAYI 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, even as he reiterated holding former President Buhari in high esteem always and acknowledge his valiant efforts in piloting the economy under the circumstance he found it during his tenure.
