President Muhammadu Buhari’s decision to stick with the deadline for the naira swap policy has been countered by some chieftains of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Despite the Supreme Court order that old notes should remain legal tender till next Wednesday, President Buhari said in a national broadcast on Thursday, pronounced that N500 and N1,000 are no longer legal tender in the country.
He therefore approved the continued use of the old N200 as legal tender till April 10.
Reacting, Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has kicked against President Buhari’s decision to limit the legal tender status of old naira notes to N200, saying it is a move against the APC in the coming elections.
El-Rufai in a state broadcast last night urged the people of the state to continue to use the old and new notes of N500 and N1,000 as legal tender as ordered by the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
In his words, ”The address by the President earlier this morning limiting the legal tender status of old notes to only N200 amounts to total disregard and disobedience of the ruling of February 8th which was extended further yesterday by the Supreme Court. The misguided action of the Attorney-General to mislead the President into engaging in this public violation of the order of the highest court of the land shows how desperate the policy architects are to cause national chaos, by showing open contempt for the judiciary.”
He added “These evil people using the instrumentality of the Federal Government and the President as convenient covers are willing to truncate our democracy because they have personally lost out.
“They are massively deploying resources and tools to defeat the political party that gave us the platform to serve the country just because they could not impose the candidates of their choice. Let us not help them.”
On his part, Kano State Governor Abdullahi Ganduje said Buhari is out to truncate Nigeria’s democracy.
Ganduje spoke late Wednesday in Kano when he met with the Forum of Former Parliamentarians, North-West zone, that visited to intimate him of their resolve to support the presidential ambition of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the APC.
Ganduje 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.
Also, the Speaker of the House of Representatives Femi Gbajamiabila, described the president’s action as a flagrant disregard of the Supreme Court order.
Gbajabiamila, in a statement personally signed by him in Abuja, noted that though the president’s directive was a step in the right direction, the Federal Government could not afford situations that “suggest a wanton disregard for the rule of law.
“It is not to the benefit of our country for the Federal Government to act in ways that suggest a wanton disregard for the rule of law. It will be better for us to strictly adhere to the court’s order in this matter pending the adjudication of the substantive suit,” the statement reads in part.
