El-Rufai dares Buhari, asks people to disregard president, continue using old currency

El-Rufai dares Buhari, asks people to disregard president, continue using old currency

Story from Saleh INUWA

Governor of Kaduna State, Nasiru El-Rufai, has alleged that the scarcity of naira notes and petrol shortage is part of a plot to disrupt the elections in order to ensure an interim government takes over.

In a state broadcast on Thursday, El-Rufai said the current cash scarcity is part of moves to ensure that Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), loses the election.

READ ALSO: Buhari must react with authority to Gov. Elrufai’s statement on old notes – Lawmaker

“It is important for the people of Kaduna State, and indeed Nigeria to know that contrary to the public pronouncements and apparent good intentions, this policy was conceived and sold to the President by officials who completely lost out in the gubernatorial and presidential primaries of the APC in June 2022.

“When 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.

READ ALSO: Buhari orders return of old N200 note into circulation 

“They also sought to achieve 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.

Kaduna is one of the states challenging the deadline on the old naira notes, in a suit filed before the supreme court.

Neptune Prime recalls that the supreme court, in its ruling, declared the old 200, 500 and 1000 naira notes as legal tenders pending the determination of the suit before it by seven state governors.

However, President Muhammadu Buhari in a nationwide broadcast on Thursdays said the N200 will be in circulation till Aprill 2023, while N500 and N1000 ceased to legal tenders.

Hours before the president’s announcement, El-Rufai had explained why he was against a proposal by the federal government to extend the deadline stating that the monetary policy has crippled economic activities in his state.

Amid the naira scarcity crisis, Nigerians are also faced with a hike in the price of petrol which has resulted to long queues in fuelling stations across the country and angry citizens burning and vandalising banks across the country.