Despite its meeting with President Mohammadu Buhari in the morning of Friday at the State House, Abuja, the Progressives Governors’ Forum will have to wait for seven days before knowing whether their requests are approved or not.
Considering the hardships inflicted on Nigerians by the implementation of the redesigned new naira notes, the governors pleaded with the president to prevail on the Central Bank of Nigeria to allow the old and new naira notes to co-exist.
The governors believe that allowing this would ease the current scarcity of naira notes and its attendant suffering on Nigerians.
But President Buhari in response through a statement released by Garba Shehu, one of his spokesmen stated: “I will revert to the CBN and the minting company. There will be a decision one way or the other in the remaining seven days of the 10-day extension.”
The president also expressed doubts about the sincerity of commercial banks in seeing to the success of the naira redesign policy of his administration. He however expressed confidence that the currency re-design would give a boost to the economy and provide long-term benefits.
President Buhari stated that “some banks are inefficient and only concerned about themselves” and will probably not help in resolving the new naira scarcity problem “even if a year is added, problems associated with selfishness and greed won’t go away.”
Prior to the statement from the presidency, Nasir El-Rufai, the governor of Kaduna State, immediately after the governors’ meeting with the president, had spoken to journalists in Hausa through which he revealed the request tabled before the president.
El-Rufai stated before state house journalists that the CBN mopped up over N2tn of the old notes but only printed N300bn of the new ones.
According to him, the new notes in circulation are insufficient for Nigerians.
El-Rufai further stated that the CBN’s cashless policy should have been preceded by the printing of at least half of the amount mopped up-N1tn.
The Kaduna state helmsman bemoaned the fate of many Nigerians that have been suffering even as traders of perishable goods are daily losing their wares from low patronage.
The nation awaits, earnestly the outcome of President Buhari’s final decision on this issue in seven days’ time which translates to fifteen days before the presidential election of February 25.
