Kano state governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, has said the Naira notes redesign policy brought by the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government is beyond a plot against any presidential ambition but targeted at truncating democracy.
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Ganduje, who spoke late Wednesday when he met with the Forum of Former Parliamentarians, North-west zone, who came to intimate him of their resolve to support the presidential ambition of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
It was reported that Kano is among the state governments that are before the Supreme Court to challenge the legality of the policy and the governor has threatened to shut down any business in the state that refused to accept the old Naira notes as legal tenders.
Ganduje asked why the president and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Godwin Emefiele, did not think of the policy seven years ago and why it has to be at the eve of an election.
“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?
“How is it possible when the World Bank said the policy is wrong, IMF said its is wrong, other leaders said it is wrong, but you said you need seven days to think over it. The poor man selling vegetable will have his goods rotten (before end of the thinking period), that is why I close down one supermarket for rejecting the old notes. The Supreme court has said the old notes are still a legal tender, that is why any bank that refuses to collect, I will revoke their certificate and if do that they cannot work,” the governor said promising that Tinubu would revoke the policy after the election.
On his part, the convener of the former parliamentarian forum, Alhaji Adamu Panda said the forum agreed that the next president should be someone who formally believes in the philosophy of building the people in building the nation.
He said they believe that the unwritten agreement between the north and the south must be respected and keeping the country stable and United must therefore be of importance to all, adding that “Support for power-shift is therefore necessary for us.”
The forum also said the north going for another candidate aside from the APC candidate could also jeopardize the budding relationship between the north and the south which can see the southwest seeking alliances elsewhere.
