What Lawan, Gbajabiamila Discussed With Buhari

The details of the meeting between President Muhammadu Buhari, Senate President Ahmad Lawan, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives,  Femi Gbajabiamila, have emerged.

Naija News reports that the President met with the National Assembly leadership hours after the Council of State endorsed the Naira redesign policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Speaking with State House Correspondents after the meeting, Lawan said the National Assembly has resolved that there should be no deadline for the currency swap policy as a result of its negative effect on Nigerians.

The Senate President added that there is no need for a time limit on the validity of the old naira note, adding that the National Assembly supports the resolution of the council of state that the CBN should make new naira notes available or recirculate old notes.

He said: “For us in the senate, initially we felt that this policy in the first place is not a bad one. But we also feel there is no need for time limit.

“Allow the old and the new to co-exist until the old is phase out. So, what is wrong in that? This is not going to be the first country to deploy it that way.

“Other countries have been doing the same thing. And to say that in three months it will be okay? It is not okay, especially in a country like ours where maybe 80, 85, 90 percent of the population have no access to banks.

“When Britain changed their currency, it took them over a year to change and the validity of the old remains and remains a legal tender. So, why ours? We are not cashless yet and that society is cashless already and they needed even more time.

“So, we should have an open-ended time but what will make it quick is for us to have more of the new currencies and then they co-exist with the old ones until the old dies a natural death.”