Ishola Michael – Gombe
Immediate past Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Yakubu Dogara, has commended President Muhammadu Buhari’s efforts aimed at curbing vote-buying ahead of the 2023 general elections.
The former Speaker however, said that he is not uninformed or unaffected by the hardship caused by the Naira redesigned and swap policy but pleaded with Nigerians to endure it for a few weeks as a sacrifice for a “free, fair and credible elections.”
Yakubu Dogara was speaking on
Friday in Yola at a Town Hall meeting organized by Atiku/Okowa campaign organisation with the theme: “Overcoming the Fears of Same Faith Presidential Ticket 2023.”
According to him, “I want to specifically commend President Buhari over the initiative to curb vote buying in the forthcoming general elections. I am not uninformed of nor unaffected by the hardship caused by the Naira redesign and swap policy but I want to plead with Nigerians to endure it for these few weeks as sacrifice for a free, fair and credible election.”
He stressed, “It’s a life lesson: that just as injury has pains, so also recovery has pains. But if we have to get healed, we have to endure the pains. I urge us all to trudge on in the hope that these pains may truly be the birth pangs we may endure for a New Nigeria to be born.”
Yakubu Dogara also said, “For those criticising the President on the issue of timing, I want to remind them in the words of Dr King Jnr that time is eternally neutral and , “the time is always ripe to do right.“
He further said; “let me end by calling on CBN to ensure the redesigned notes are made available to our people but even if the CBN failed to do so, my plea to all Nigerians is to endure the pains for few more weeks for our votes to count and for us to elect a president we truly deserve.”
He continues, “Let me emphatically say that the President has the sole constitutional powers over currency matters and all those busy running their mouths because they have been denied the opportunity to deploy the ill- gotten Naira they have stashed to buy votes, that they are committing treason.”
“The President is absolutely right not to have given in to the greed of the few against the needs of the many. While the President is right to have acted on what he knows and in the best interest of the country, his traducers are petty, unpatriotic, treacherous and grossly irresponsible,” he stressed.
