President Approved Naira Redesign, But CBN Did Currency Recoloring – El-Rufai Makes Fresh Claims

The Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai has given more reasons why he is insisting that the new naira policy introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) should be suspended.

The Governor who had openly resisted the new naira redesign policy including dragging the matter before the Supreme Court, took to his Twitter account on Sunday to highlight some objections against the policy as well as its deficiencies.

In the fresh claims against the naira policy on Sunday, El-Rufai insisted that what was approved by President Muhammadu Buhari is different from what was implemented. He argued further that what the CBN did is Naira confiscation and not a naira swap/redesign.

El-Rufai argued that with what the CBN did, trade and exchange have collapsed. Human suffering, impoverishment and economic contraction are now the order of the day.

According to him, “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.”