Naira Redesign: Atiku, El- rufai differ on policy

…address hardship faced by ordinary Nigerians, don’t succumb to blackmail, Atiku tells CBN

…timing politically, economically senseless, certain persons in Aso Rock working against Tinubu says – El- rufai

By Tunde Opalana

As ordinary Nigerians continue to experience difficulty in assessing newly designed naira notes despite a 10 extension of deadline by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for exchange of old to new notes, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El- rufai on Wednesday held different views on the policy .

While Atiku called of the CBN to alleviate the suffering of the common man in getting new naira notes, El- rufai though lauded the policy, said the timing for implementation does not make either political or economic sense.

The former Vice President and PDP candidate urged the apex bank to immediately review the measures it has put in place for ensuring the seamless circulation of the new naira notes to alleviate the hardship confronting ordinary people across the country, especially rural dwellers, who need cash for their daily transactions.

In a statement released in Abuja on Wednesday from his campaign office, Atiku praised the CBN for listening to the demand of the ordinary people by granting a ten-day extension for the exchange of the old naira notes for new ones.

He however advised that no further extension should be considered after February 10 so as not to destroy the purpose and objective of initiating the redesigning of the currency.

“The additional ten days will enable our people in the rural areas and ordinary people across the country to take the naira in their possession into the banks. It will also enable the CBN to further circulate the new currency notes among banks so that people can have easy access.

“Within these ten days, I urge the CBN to initiate measures that will alleviate the problems being encountered by the people in exchanging their old naira notes for new ones and getting more new notes into circulation. The CBN may have to consider printing more currency notes to eliminate the current scarcity among ordinary people, especially rural dwellers who need them for their daily transactions.

“If the CBN thinks its officials and banks must operate at the weekend in order to address the needs of the ordinary people and rural dwellers, it may have to consider this option, after all the amount these people require is not huge.

“The essential element here is ensuring that the new currency goes around and is well distributed to the points where people can easily access them. Every good policy must be people-centred and must not bring an avoidable difficulty to the people.

“However, the CBN should be wary of the elite whose motive for crying out about more postponement of the deadline for the tenure of the old naira notes is sinister and far from being altruistic. I am totally in support of building a cashless economy and reducing the amount of cash in our economy.

“The cashless policy and reduction of the cash in circulation has many advantages and every patriotic Nigerian should support the CBN on this. It will help to reduce the flow of illicit funds in our economy. It will help to defeat the funding of terrorism and deter the circulation of drug money in our economy. It will help our fight against corruption.

“More importantly, a cashless economy will help to save and grow our democracy. Those who have devised several means of buying votes in the coming elections and using money to corrupt the electoral system as well as destroying the principle of one man, one vote and the goal of a credible, peaceful, free, and fair poll are the ones shouting against the cashless policy and naira redesign.

“The anti-democratic elements who are pretending to be democrats are the ones ganging up against the CBN because of the currency redesigning and the cashless regime it seeks to enthrone. They have been scheming and lobbying day and night to frustrate the policy. Now, their new measure is to lobby for a second postponement of the deadline for the change of currency. I urge the CBN and the government to ignore their antics. The CBN should not succumb to the current pressure.”

Insisting that there should be no further postponement of the new naira regime after the expiration of the February 10 deadline, Atiku said “the vote riggers are seeking to push the CBN to extend till after the election when they would have achieved their evil plots. The CBN and the Presidency should be steadfast. The merits of the new naira policy far outweigh the little inconvenience we are experiencing.

“This is one policy that will benefit the country in the long term. We should not allow those selfish, parochial people with the narrow vision to derail it”.

The Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, who spoke on Wednesday on a Channels Television morning Sunrise Daily programme agreed with the motive behind naira redesigning but faulted the timing by government.

El- rufai credited President Buhari for the CBN- driven policy meant to sanitize the polity, adding that Buhari did same as a military president and it achieved purpose.

The Kaduna governor said “you have to understand the president. People are blaming the Governor of the Central Bank for the currency redesign, but No.

“You have to go back and look at the first outing of Buhari as president. He did this; the Buhari, Idiagbon regime changed our currency and did it in secrecy with a view to catching those that are stashing away illicit funds. It is a very good intention.

“The president has his right. But doing it at this time within the allotted time does not make any political or economic sense.”

Governor El- rufai also spoke on what he termed division in the ruling APC and plot to subvert the chances of its presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu in winning the February 25 presidential election.

The governor fingered some persons withing the Aso Rock Presidential Villa as not favourably disposed to Tinubu’s candidature because their preferred contenders for the APC presidential ticket failed at the primary.

El- rufai said ”I believe there are elements in the Villa that want us to lose the election because they didn’t get their way; they had their candidate. Their candidate did not win the primaries.

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“They are trying to get us to lose the election, and they are hiding behind the president’s desire to do what he thinks is right. I will give two examples: this petroleum subsidy, which is costing the country trillions of Naira, was something that we all agreed would be removed.

“In fact, I had a discussion with the president and showed him why it had to go. Because how can you have a capital budget of N200b for federal roads and then spend N2 Trillion on petroleum subsidy? This was a conversation I had with the president in 2021 when the subsidy thing started rising. He was convinced. We left. It changed. Everyone in the government agreed, and it changed.”