The Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai has said what the Central Bank of Nigeria did regarding the naira redesign is different from what was approved by President Muhammadu Buhari.
In a post on Twitter on Sunday titled, ‘NIGERIA UPDATE: ABC of Currency Redesign vs. XYZ of Cash Confiscation Explained’, El-Rufai accused the apex bank of derailing the policy objective to sabotage the elections.
He said, “Currency redesign was approved by the President and announced. Currency recoloring resulted.
“Currency swap was envisaged by s.20(3) of the Central Bank of Nigeria Act as approved by PMB. Swap means I take N100,000 to the bank in old notes & I receive N100,000 immediately in new notes. No more, no less.
“During implementation of the cash swap, the CBN withdrew over N2 trillion from circulation but printed only N400 billion, so in effect, currency confiscation was then unilaterally and unlawfully implemented by the CBN. Trade and exchange have collapsed. Human suffering, impoverishment and economic contraction resulted.
“The policy objective was derailed into a deliberate national fiasco to sabotage the elections in the name of preventing vote-buying. All efforts to get CBN to implement what was lawfully approved failed.
“Some State Governments had no choice but to approach the Supreme Court for adjudication. The APC as a party and the Progressive Governors Forum are unanimous that policy implementation must be reviewed, and full compliance of the subsisting ruling of the Supreme Court be observed until final judgment on the suit instituted by the State Governments.”
Last year, the CBN announced that it would redesign N200, N500 and N1000 banknotes, saying old notes should be swapped for new ones by January 31.
Following several appeals made by Nigerians, the deadline was moved to February 10. However, a Supreme Court ruling suspended the February 10 deadline.
A week after the Supreme Court ordered the Nigerian government to allow the continued use of old N200, N500 and N1,000 notes, President Muhammadu Buhari countered that order.
In his national broadcast last Thursday, Buhari announced that the old N500 and N1000 notes had ceased to be legal tender but extended the deadline for N200 notes to April 10.
But some states including Kaduna, Ogun, and Kano have announced that the old notes should still be considered as legal tender in their domain, based on the Supreme Court ruling. The state governments also threatened to sanction any bank that rejects the old notes until the apex court says otherwise.