Presidential candidate of the New Nigerian People Party (NNPP), Senator Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso, has knocked the All Progressive Congress (APC) governors criticising President Muhammadu Buhari over the Naira redesign policy.
Recall that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which introduced the policy last year, had fixed January 31 as the deadline for spending old N200, N500 and N1,000 notes in public.
This had generated a huge controversy, and triggered a nationwide outrage. Governors of the ruling party joined those who criticised Buhari over the issue.
While Governor Abdullahi Ganduje, of Kano State, had alleged that the naira redesign policy was aimed at truncating Nigeria’s democracy, his Kaduna counterpart, Nasir El-Rufai, asked residents to disregard Buhari’s directive.
Governors Dapo Abiodun (Ogun), Babajide Sanwo-Olu (Lagos), Abubakar Badaru (Jigawa) were among those who declared that old N500 and N1,000 notes were still legal tender in their states.
Reacting to the developments, Kwankwaso, at an NNPP function, said he was shocked that APC governors could act in that manner.
“In each State, you have branches of banks; and in some states, you even have the national headquarters of those banks. On one hand, we thought they (governors) would take all the billions from Government Houses and so on.
“But we realised that these same governors were abusing their leaders, insulting them; I was shocked. I never thought some of them could abuse Buhari to that level.
“On one hand, I was surprised that facts were coming out, and we began to wonder what is wrong with them. Maybe EFCC was right, that some governors are keeping billions of naira in their compounds across the country. Now, the policy has made that looted money completely useless. I think that is why they are angry”.
“So, we are so happy with the Federal Government on that, the money they have collected is completely zero, it has expired”, Kwankwaso further stated.
