Sandra Nwaokolo
Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has accused the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) of unlawfully withdrawing N2 trillion from circulation and replacing the old notes with only N400 billion.
The governor made the allegation in a tweet via his verified Twitter handle on Sunday, accusing the apex bank of unilaterally and unlawfully implementing currency confiscation.
El-Rufai claimed that the CBN’s actions have caused trade and exchange to collapse, resulting in human suffering, impoverishment, and economic contraction.
He further alleged that the policy objective was derailed into a deliberate national fiasco to sabotage elections and prevent vote-buying. According to him, all efforts to get the CBN to implement what was lawfully approved failed.
The governor stated that President Muhammadu Buhari approved the redesigning of the naira, but the CBN did something different regarding the redesigning and swapping of the currency.
He claimed that while the President approved the redesigning of the N200, N500, and N1000 notes, the CBN only recoloured the currency.
El-Rufai pointed out that currency swap was envisaged by Section 20(3) of the Central Bank of Nigeria Act, as approved by President Buhari, meaning individuals could take N100,000 to the bank in old notes and receive N100,000 immediately in new notes, with no more or less.
The naira crisis peaked last Thursday after the President’s national broadcast, which countered the Supreme Court by extending the validity of old N200 notes while insisting that old N500 and N1,000 notes remained illegal.
President Buhari urged Nigerians to deposit their old N500 and N1,000 notes with the CBN, adding that the old N200 note would be legal tender for the next 60 days until April 10.
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