Naira Redesign Policy Was Conceived After Tinubu Won APC Ticket – El-Rufai

The controversial Naira redesign policy by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) was conceived after the former Governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu, emerged as the presidential flagbearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC), says Kaduna State Governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufai.

El-Rufai asserted this while addressing residents of Kaduna State in a statewide broadcast on Thursday night, Naija News reports.

According to him,  the policy consented to by President Muhammadu Buhari began after the APC presidential primary, alleging that some enemies of the country plotted it to deprive Tinubu of what they described as a ‘humongous war chest’.

“Once Asiwaju Bola Tinubu emerged as the candidate in June 2022, and subsequently did not pick one of them as his running mate, this currency redesign policy was conceived to ensure that the APC presidential candidate is deprived of what they alleged is a humongous war chest,” the Kaduna State governor alleged.

He also mentioned that the people behind the currency redesign policy sought to achieve at least one or more of the following objectives:

• Create a nationwide shortage of cash so that citizens are incited to vote against APC candidates across the board resulting in massive losses for the Party in all the elections.
• Ensure that the cash crunch is so serious, along with the contrived and enduring fuel shortage existing since September 2022, that the 2023 Elections do not hold at all, leading to an Interim National Government to be led by a retired Army General.
• Sustain the climate of shortage of fuel, food and other necessities, leading to mass protests, violence and breakdown of law and order that would provide a fertile foundation for a military take-over.

El-Rufai said though the federal government and the CBN had claimed the Naira policy was targeted at some politicians and individuals hoarding higher notes of the country’s currency, their alleged targets are not affected by the hardship the implementation of the policy brought on Nigerians.

He further alleged that some presidential candidates in the opposition party and their running mates have unrestricted access to some of the licensed banks in the country.

“Yet, the politicians that the officials have convinced the President to regard as the real targets of the currency redesign policy have not been impeded in any way by it so far. Indeed, two of the presidential candidates, and a running mate of the opposition parties own or have preferred access to some of the licensed banks. For that reason and by various clandestine arrangements, these politicians have access to hundreds of millions of these new notes, while the traders, merchants, students and other citizens are queuing for days to withdraw a few thousand Naira just to buy food and necessaries,” El-Rufai asserted.