The Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Digital Communications, Bashir Ahmad, has slammed Governors Nasir El-Rufai and Abdullahi Ganduje for their angry outbursts over the decision of the regime and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to phase out old naira notes.
In a series of social media posts on Thursday, the presidential aide claimed both Governor El-Rufai and Ganduje are only angry because the money they have stolen and stashed are now worthless due to the regime’s stance that the old notes are no longer tenderable despite Supreme Court judgment temporarily stopping the plan.
Both Governors have both filed a motion for their states, Kaduna and Kano, to be joined to an open suit brought by some other states in the country before the Supreme Court suit seeking to stop the regime from going forward with the plan.
The presidential media aide also dared both governors to directly deposit the alleged stashed money they are claiming were legally gotten to CBN and Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) and Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to investigate the legality of the money.
“They have stashed money and now they’re useless,” Ahmad said in the series of posts.
He added: “That’s the reason for all the fuming. Ganduje and co don’t care about the masses. If the money Ganduje and friends are shouting about is legit, why don’t they deposit it to CBN, the EFCC and NFIU will wait for them to verify.”
Ahmad’s words were in response to El-Rufai and Ganduje’s constant criticism of the regime’s plan to render the old N200, N500, N1000 notes an illegal tender ahead of the 25 February presidential election, with many speculating the policy was put to punish some candidates during the poll.
They have also ordered residents in their states to continue carrying out their day-to-day transactions with the old notes and even Ganduje had threatened businesses in Kano, including commercial banks, with government sanctions if they refused to accept the currency.
On Thursday, Buhari ordered the CBN to begin releasing only the old N200 note into circulation with the new one for next 60 days while reaffirming that the higher notes, N500 and N1000 are now illegal tender, a move that many including House Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila characterized as “disregard” for rule of law.
Reacting to the president’s broadcast on Thursday night, El-Rufai described the current scarcity of naira notes as part of an alleged plot to disrupt the forthcoming general elections to ensure an interim government takes over.
The Governor made the allegation in a state broadcast.
He alleged that the development was meant to ensure that the presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu, and other candidates of the party lose.
He claimed that those who lost out in the party’s primaries were behind the plot.
He said: “It is important for the people of Kaduna State, and indeed Nigeria, to know that contrary to the public pronouncements and apparent good intentions, this policy was conceived and sold to the President by officials who completely lost out in the gubernatorial and presidential primaries of the APC in June 2022.
“Once Asiwaju Bola Tinubu emerged as the candidate in June 2022, and subsequently did not pick one of them as his running mate, this currency redesign policy was conceived to ensure that the APC presidential candidate is deprived of what they alleged is a humongous war chest.
“They also sought to achieve any one or more of the following objectives: create a nationwide shortage of cash so that citizens are incited to vote against APC candidates across the board resulting in massive losses for the party in all the elections; ensure that the cash crunch is so serious, along with the contrived and enduring fuel shortage existing since September 2022, that the 2023 elections do not hold at all, leading to an Interim National Government to be led by a retired Army General; sustain the climate of shortage of fuel, food and other necessities, leading to mass protests, violence and breakdown of law and order that would provide a fertile foundation for a military take-over.”
Ganduje on his part alleged that the naira redesign policy of the president is a deliberate attempt to truncate Nigeria’s democracy.
Ganduje spoke late Wednesday in Kano when he received the Forum of Former Parliamentarians, North-West zone, that visited to intimate him of their resolve to support the APC presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Ganduje, whose recorded remarks had gone viral, said it was unfortunate that despite the collective efforts made by the APC to ensure Buhari’s election victories in 2015 and 2019 after several losses, the president had resolved to pay the party and those that supported him back by destroying the party that brought him to power.
“Imagine someone has been contesting without winning elections until after a merger was formed.
“He won the election and spent four years, and re-contested again and he won, now that he is about to go, he is doing nothing but to destroy the party that elected him,” Ganduje said.
Ganduje, who lamented the hardships brought about by the policy, asked why the president and CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele did not think of the policy seven years ago and why it had to be on the eve of an election.
“What is wrong with doing it after elections? Why hasn’t he done 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, the IMF said it is wrong, other leaders said it is wrong, but you said you need seven days to think over it?”
Ganduje also stated that Tinubu would revoke the policy after the election. He said the policy was not that of the ruling party but they are aware this is part of the plot to ensure elections do not hold, saying the development is similar to how MKO Abiola was denied of being President.