Somto Bisina
Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has remodeled his opposition to Nigeria’s currency policy to focus more pointedly on the Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Godwin Emefile, and less on President Muhammadu Buhari;
This came after he directly countered Buhari’s national address on the matter and accused the Buhari government of plotting to upset Nigeria’s democracy and the 2023 presidential ambition of his party’s candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
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El-Rufai said on Sunday that, while Buhari approved Naira redesign, the CBN only re-coloured the Naira notes and did not re-design it.
The Kaduna State governor made his allegation in a post on his official Twitter handle on Sunday, adding that CBN only confiscated the currency as against what was published in the currency swap policy.
“During the implementation of the cash swap, the CBN withdrew over N2 trillion from circulation but printed only N400 billion, so in effect, currency confiscation was then unilaterally and unlawfully implemented by the CBN. Trade and exchange have collapsed. Human suffering, impoverishment and economic contraction resulted,” he tweeted.
“The policy objective was derailed into a deliberate national fiasco to sabotage the elections in the name of preventing vote-buying. All efforts to get CBN to implement what was lawfully approved failed.
El-Rufai also alleges that what was approved by President Muhammadu Buhari was different from what the CBN did regarding the redesigning of the currency. According to him, President Buhari approved the redesign of the N200, N500 and N1000 notes, but the CBN did recolouring of the currency.
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He added: “Currency redesign was approved by the President and announced, however, currency recolouring resulted.
“Currency swap was envisaged by s.20(3) of the Central Bank of Nigeria Act as approved by PMB. Swap means I take N100,000 to the bank in old notes & I receive N100,000 immediately in new notes. No more, no less.” El-Rufai said
The naira scarcity heightened last Thursday, after the President’s nationwide broadcast. The President, ignored the Supreme Court order by extending the validity of old N200 notes while insisting that old N500 and N1,000 remained illegal.
Advising Nigerians to deposit their old N500 and 1000 notes with the CBN, Buhari said the old N200 note would be legal tender for the next 60 days till April 10.
