The Presidential Candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC Mr. Bola Tinubu has called on the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN to effectively execute the Supreme Court ruling on the new naira notes policy.
In a press statement, Mr. Tinubu said the Apex Bank should ensure sufficient availability of Naira notes, whether old or new, and properly sensitise the public on the ruling and the consequent validity of old Naira.
He was reacting to the Supreme Court ruling that gave an interim injunction restraining the CBN and Federal Government, from implementing the February 10 deadline that stops the old 200, 500 and 1000 naira notes from being legal tenders.
The APC Presidential Candidate also hailed the Governors of the 36 states for standing on the side of the Nigerian people over the CBN new naira and cashless policies that have subjected the masses to hardship.
He said the APC Governors of Kogi, Kaduna and Zamfara who instituted the suit against the CBN and Nigerian Government at the Supreme Court acted well on behalf of the citizens.
“I want to salute the courage of our Governors and most especially the Progressives Governors in APC who acted to save our country from avoidable and dangerous political crisis and social unrest which the Central Bank policy on new Naira notes has brought on our country.
“Our country was dangerously careering toward anarchy and political and economic shutdown. But with the Supreme Court interim ruling our country has been pulled back from the precipice. We thank our Supreme Court Justices for ruling wisely on the side of the people who have been subjected to undue agony and pains since this policy was announced,” he lamented.
The APC presidential candidate also urged the Federal Government and relevant stakeholders to work out better framework on how to proceed with the new policy “without causing any social and economic disruption and inconvenience to our people. We have examples of other countries that have successfully and seamlessly changed their currencies to learn from.
“Those countries give a long time, at least 12 months to effect the currency change. They do not engage in CBN-like Fire Brigade approach.
“We have seen how a good policy can be poorly implemented to cause unintended problems for the people who should be the beneficiaries. While lessons have been learnt, we must now move on as a country and people with a Renewed Hope for a better tomorrow.
“The sole aim of my running to be the president of our country is to make life better and more abundant for our people and this is an ideal for which I will remain eternally committed to” Tinubu said.
