GOVERNOR Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State has blamed President Muhammadu Buhari for approving the redesign of the N1000, N500 and N200 notes.
The redesigned notes have been scarce in circulation since they were introduced into the financial system on December 15, 2022, and have largely been unavailable even in commercial banks.
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The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) initially fixed January 31 as deadline to accept the old notes as legal tender. But with most citizens across the country still unable to obtain the new notes, the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, was, on January 29, constrained to shift the deadline to February 10.
Nigerians’ agony over accessing the new notes has, however, persisted. Many commercial banks were, by this morning, not offering them at the counters, claiming lack of supply from the CBN. Many ATMs, empty of money, were also not dispensing. To many point-of-sale operators who had some, it was brisk business as they upped their commission by, at least, 100 per cent.
Besides Buhari, El-Rufai also blamed some people he described as “fifth columnists” for pushing some government policies, including the naira redesign and persistent fuel scarcity, that he feared could eventually cause unrest in the country.
The governor, in a monitored broadcast on Channels Television today, said the currency redesign move was the idea of a few people in the Presidential Villa, Abuja, and never the policy of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
He said, “This is not the right time to embark on such an exercise because most parts of the areas in Nigeria have no banking facilities.
“I must say that the naira redesign and fuel scarcity are the handiwork of fifth columnists because they want to bring the country down. Otherwise, why must redesigning of the naira be the priority of the Federal government at this time?” he wondered.
El-Rufai, a prominent member of the APC, alleged that most of the people in the Presidential Villa are not APC members, “hence some of the policies they are churning out from time to time are those that will hurt the APC.”
When asked if he was not using his close relationship with Buhari to offer suggestions on how to solve some national issues, he dismissed the question with a wave of the hand, saying that he could not remember the last time he made suggestions that were accepted.
“I stopped going to the Presidential Villa four years ago. What is the use when every suggestion you bring will not be accepted?
”So I would rather stay back solving the problems of my state (Kaduna), which I believe will be more important to me and my people. I don’t go to the Presidential Villa anymore,” he declared.
The governor’s allegation would not be unconnected with the outburst of the presidential flagbearer of the APC in the February 25 election, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, at his recent campaign in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, where he said the naira redesign and current fuel crisis were the shenanigans of some people to scuttle his chances at the 2023 presidential poll.
El-Rufai disclosed that some members of “a cabal” within the Presidency and the APC of northern extraction had begun scheming to discredit Tinubu, his running mate Kashim Shettima, and the APC generally as a ploy to have another President from the North to replace Buhari.
Harrison Edeh is a journalist with the International Centre for Investigative Reporting, always determined to drive advocacy for good governance through holding public officials and businesses accountable.