President Bola Tinubu on Tuesday falsely claimed that he rescued the naira from historic lows caused by his predecessor, the late Muhammadu Buhari, boasting that he brought the dollar exchange rate down from N1,900 to N1,450 when he assumed office in 2023.

But Mr Tinubu lied.

While listing his so-called achievements to former members of a disbanded CPC political party at the Presidential Villa on Tuesday, Mr Tinubu cited the currency exchange rate, one of the worst-performing indicators of the nation’s economic woes triggered by his free float policy in 2023, as evidence of stability.

Despite the naira ranking as one of the world’s worst-performing currencies in 2024, the president claimed the nation was stable under his watch and that the naira held more value than it did under his now-deceased predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari.

“The economy has stabilised, nobody is trading a piece of paper for an exchange rate anymore,” Mr Tinubu claimed. “When I took over, it was N1,900 to a dollar. It’s N1,450 now. It’s been stabilising there. You don’t have to know Cardoso before you get your foreign exchange.”

Mr Buhari and then-governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, injected millions of dollars into the market to prevent the naira, which had risen as high as N900, from free-falling to N1,000 per dollar on the parallel market. 

The official exchange rate remained at N461. But as soon as Mr Tinubu assumed office, he activated the free float policy, allowing market forces to determine the exchange rate.

The policy closed the gap between the official and parallel markets, causing the naira to exceed N1,000 to a dollar and worsening inflation in a country that largely depended on imported products.

Mr Tinubu refused to reverse the free float, insisting it was a temporary sacrifice that would yield greater benefits for the country’s economic future.

Since 2023, the naira has continued to free-fall, reaching a high of N1,900 under the former Lagos governor.