The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has counseled the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to immediately review the measures put in place to ensure new naira, not circulation to ensure a seamless exercise and alleviate the hardship confronting ordinary people across the country.
In a statement by his office on Wednesday, the former vice president stressed the need to bail out especially rural dwellers, who need cash for their daily transactions.
Atiku praised the CBN for listening to the demand of the ordinary people by granting a 10-day extension to exchange the old naira notes for new ones.
He advised that further extension should be considered before February 10 to maintain the purpose and objective of initiating the redesigning of the currency.
The statement quoted him as saying: “The additional ten days will enable our people in the rural areas and ordinary people across the country to take the naira in their possession into the banks. It will also allow the CBN to further circulate the new currency notes among banks so that people can have easy access.
“Within these ten days, I urge the CBN to initiate measures to alleviate the problems encountered by the people in exchanging their old naira notes for new ones and getting more new notes into circulation. The CBN should consider printing more currency notes to eliminate the current scarcity among ordinary people, especially rural dwellers who need them for daily transactions.
“If the CBN thinks its officials and banks must operate at the weekend to address the needs of the ordinary people and rural dwellers, it may have to consider this option. After all, the amount these people require is small. The essential element here is ensuring that the new currency goes around and is well distributed to the points where people can easily access them. Every good policy must be people-centered and not bring avoidable difficulty to the people.
“However, the CBN should be wary of the elite whose motive for crying out about more postponement of the deadline for the tenure of the old naira notes is sinister and far from being altruistic. I support building a cashless economy and reducing the amount of cash in our economy.
“The cashless policy and reduction of the cash in circulation has many advantages, and every patriotic Nigerian should support the CBN on this. It will help to reduce the flow of illicit funds in our economy. It will help to defeat the funding of terrorism and deter the circulation of drug money in our economy. It will help our fight against corruption.
“More importantly, a cashless economy will help to save and grow our democracy. Those who have devised several means of buying votes in the coming elections and using money to corrupt the electoral system as well as destroying the principle of one man, one vote and the goal of a credible, peaceful, accessible, and fair poll are the ones shouting against the cashless policy and naira redesign.
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“The anti-democratic elements which are pretending to be democrats are the ones ganging up against the CBN because of the currency redesigning and the cashless regime it seeks to enthrone. They have been scheming and lobbying day and night to frustrate the policy. Their new measure is to lobby for a second postponement of the deadline for the change of currency. I urge the CBN and the government to ignore their antics. The CBN should not succumb to the current pressure.
“There should be no further postponement of the new naira regime after the expiration of the February 10 deadline. The vote riggers are seeking to push the CBN to extend till after the election when they would have achieved their evil plots. The CBN and the Presidency should be steadfast. The merits of the new naira policy far outweigh the minor inconvenience we are experiencing.
“This policy will benefit the country in the long term. We should not allow those selfish, parochial people with the narrow vision to derail it.”
