The Adamawa State Governor Ahmadu Fintiri, says the cash withdrawal limit policy unveiled by the Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele, is targeted at the political class.
Controversies have continued to trail the planned policy of the CBN to limit daily cash withdrawal for individuals to N20,000 daily and N100,000 and N500,000 per week for individuals and corporate bodies respectively.
In his reaction, Governor Fintiri, during a campaign in Kala’a, Hong Local Government Area, said it was evident that the policy by Emefiele was targeted at the political class.
He said the policy coming shortly after Emefiele’s foray into politics which had been prematurely truncated, could only have been retaliatory giving that the policy was likely to worsen poverty among the citizens.
In his words, “What is breeding poverty? Economic policies. Look at the one that is about to be implemented by the Central Bank which would further throw the country into poverty. Nobody is saying the economy shouldn’t be cashless. Take time and do it systematically. We shouldn’t do it as if some people wanted to be politicians and they were denied the opportunity, then they use their office to punish the politicians.
“If we are talking about governors diverting funds, we expect the government to correct the anomaly by sponsoring amendment to the Nigerian constitution to separate the office of the accountant general of the federation from the accountant general of the federal government so that funds belonging to local government and the state would not also be converted by the federal government, because what the governors’ are being accused of, the Federal Government can equally be accused of doing same ten times over.”
He maintained that there needs to be restructuring of the current system that would allow autonomy to the states and local government, adding that “the way the system is couched there’s no autonomy even for the states nor for the local governments and nobody sees the states as sub-national of the federation because everything is being controlled at the centre.”
