Ganduje tears into Buhari and Emefiele over naira crisis

 

Ganduje questioned why Buhari needed seven days to make a decision on a policy the World Bank had faulted.

Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State has blasted President Muhammadu Buhari and Godwin Emefiele, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) over the lingering naira crisis.

Ganduje wondered why Buhari and Emefiele did not come up with the policy seven years ago, saying the CBN could have implemented the policy after the 2023 general elections.

The governor aired his opinion on the controversial cash swap policy of the CBN while addressing the Forum of Former Parliamentarians, North-west zone on Wednesday, February 15, 2023.

Ganduje also questioned why Buhari needed seven days to make a decision on the policy the World Bank and the International Monetary Funds had faulted.

He maintained that the Supreme Court recognised the old naira banknotes as legal tender, saying he would revoke the certificate of any bank that rejects them.

“What is wrong with doing it after elections? Why didn’t he do this in the past seven years? What is the meaning of all these? This CBN governor is not a politician, he doesn’t know anything about politics. How can a politician enjoy this policy? Imagine how as a leader you watch banks engulfed by fire, if not that the democracy has decayed, will that be possible? he asked.

“How is it possible when the World Bank said the policy is wrong, IMF said it is wrong, other leaders said it is wrong, but you said you need seven days to think over it? The poor man selling vegetables will have his goods rotten.

“That is why I close down one supermarket for rejecting the old notes. The Supreme court has said the old notes are still legal tender, that is why any bank that refuses to collect, I will revoke their certificate, and if I do that they cannot work”.

Meanwhile, Kaduna State governor, Malam Nasiru El-Rufai, has defied President Buhari’s instruction on the naira swap policy.

In a nationwide broadcast on Thursday, February 16, 2023, the president announced that only the old N200 note would be recirculated until April 10 while the old N1,000 and N500 notes have ceased to be legal tender since February 10, 2023.

Countering the president’s order, El-Rufai insisted that the old N1,000 and N500 notes remain legal tender in his state.

He urged Kaduna residents to continue to use the old naira notes alongside the new notes without any fear.