*As Buhari, EFCC, CDS, Govs Forum chair meet
*June 12 elements responsible for the chaos, confusion – Gov. Ganduje
The Federal Government Tuesday said its hands are tied and could no longer intervene in the hardships reportedly being experienced as a result of the introduction of the new naira notes and deadline for its full implementation.
Government insisted that “unscrupulous” opposition politicians have “legally hamstrung” President Muhammadu Buhari from providing any relief to Nigerians on the scarcity of N200, N500 and N1,000 bank notes.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, made the statements at the 23rd Edition of the President Muhammadu Buhari Administration’s Scorecard in Abuja.
Although he said the opposition parties have turned the scarcity of new naira notes to a political game, “preferring to make Nigerians suffer more on the altar of unconscionable political gamesmanship”, he ended there without preferring any solution.
The pandemonium over the February 10 deadline for the validity of three old naira notes assumed unimaginable dimension on Monday as five political parties and three state governments begun legal battles.
Whilst the Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara governments dragged the Federal government before the Supreme Court, seeking an extension to the February 10 deadline, five political parties took the matter to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court and secured an order barring the Federal Government and the apex bank from any extension of the deadline.
The CBN on October 26, 2022, announced its plan to redesign the three banknotes. The President subsequently unveiled the redesigned N200, N500, and N1,000 notes on November 23, 2022, while the apex bank fixed a January 31 deadline for the validity of the old notes.
The CBN also pegged its weekly cash withdrawal limits to N500,000 for individuals and N5m for corporate firms, which has not been feasible.
With cries by many Nigerians, the apex bank extended the deadline from January 31 to February 10, saying it got the approval of the President.
Buhari on Friday after a meeting with some APC governors asked for seven days to make a major decision on the policy.
Mohammed, on Tuesday, said, “recall, ladies and gentlemen, that after his meeting with Progressives’ Governors on Friday, Mr. President Buhari urged citizens to give him a seven-day window to resolve the currency crunch that has emanated from the implementation of the Naira redesign policy.
“Unfortunately, on Monday (yesterday), some opposition political parties ran to court to obtain an injunction restraining Mr. President and the CBN from extending the Feb. 10 deadline for Nigerians to exchange their old notes for new ones.
“The court action came after a number of opposition parties threatened to boycott the 2023 general elections if the deadline was extended.
“These curious actions by the parties concerned is clear evidence that the opposition has turned this whole issue into a political game, preferring to make Nigerians suffer more on the altar of an unconscionable political gamesmanship.
“Or how else can one explain the fact that these unscrupulous opposition parties do not want any action that could reduce the pains being experienced by Nigerians?
“How else can one explain the fact that they have decided to legally hamstring Mr. President, in particular, from providing any relief for Nigerians suffering from the cash crunch?
“It is bad politics when you put the interest of desperate political parties over and above that of Nigerians, the same Nigerians whose votes you earnestly seek.”
The minister added that despite the “bad politicking” by opposition parties, the government is willing and able to take decisive steps to bring succour to Nigerians in the shortest possible time.
He did not say categorically if the Federal Government is satisfied with the state of affairs as far as the issue is concerned, preferring to pass questions on such uner the table.
Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari later in the afternoon on Tuesday met with the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, Chairman of the Nigerian Governor’s Forum, Aminu Tambuwal, among others behind closed doors, inside Aso Villa Abuja.
The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa, as well as the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Gen Lucky Irabor, were at the meeting which was believed to have been convened to curtail the lingering naira scarcity in parts of Nigeria.
Also, the Governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, has blamed those he termed elements of the annulled June 12, 1992 presidential election for the crisis generated by the cash policy, to scuttle the nation’s hard earned democracy.
He said the group’s latest attempt at was the camouflaging in unknown political parties, through the use of legal instrument, to further impose unfeasible cash policy that is taking its toll on the masses in the country.
In a statement signed Tuesday by the Kano state Commissioner for Information, Malam Muhammad Garba, the governor further observed that the open support for the policy by the main opposition party and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar also lay bare the grand complicity between the opposition and Apex Bank to deliberately thwart the nation’s hard earned democracy by imposing harsh policies calculated to weaken the masses.
He said: “It was unfortunate that the CBN and it’s collaborators are insisting unnecessarily on the imposition of an unreasonable time frame for the old naira notes to cease to be legal tender, in total refutation of the obvious national dearth in the necessary technological infrastructure for the process.
“Ganduje further stated that the rigid insistence on the implementation of these harsh, inhuman and insensitive cash policies to a point of neglecting their widespread rejection by the vast majority of Nigerians including the National Assembly and all state governors, is an ominous agenda for the undermining of the nation and consequent scurrying of a smooth transition to a freely and fairly elected successive administration.”
