Leon Usigbe
Members of the National Assembly have told President Muhammadu Buhari that going into the election without “hard cash” will put them at a disadvantage irrespective of the political party they belong to.
Chairman of the House of Representatives Special Ad-hoc Committee on Cashless Policy, Naira Redesign and Currency Swap and Leader of the House, Ado Doguwa, stated this after leading the committee on meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Thursday.
The meeting was also attended by the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele; Inspector General of Police (IGP), Usman Baba; representatives of the Minister of Finance and Secretary to Government of the Federation (SGF) among others.
Fielding questions from correspondents, he affirmed that each member of the House of Representatives is entitled to N70 million cash to pay polling agents and for other election running costs, saying that if they have no hard cash, they will be disadvantaged in the exercise.
Doguwa explained that his committee was mandated by the House and by extension, the National Assembly, to interface with the president and the CBN on the implementation of the policy.
He said that even though most of what they wanted to discuss with the president had been taken care of by his broadcast earlier in the day, especially the extension of the validity of the old N200 notes, there is a need to do more to ensure that his directive to the apex bank to make the money available, is carried out immediately.
He said: “Now that the President has issued the directive, how do we ensure that the president’s directive is being carried out on the ground?
“This is what we came to iron out today. No matter how professional a policy is, it is counterproductive if it induces suffering in Nigerians.”
More details to come later…
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