Governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Ganduje, said the untimely implementation of the naira swap policy, was deliberately done by the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, as a retaliation for his failed presidential bid.
Mr Ganduje stated this on Sunday during a campaign rally, held at Tsanyawa Local Government Area, his media aide, Abba Anwar, said in a statement.
“The CBN Governor is only doing this to confuse the forthcoming elections for no just reason.
” He (Mr Emefiele) has not been in good mood for long, because he failed to secure a presidential ticket on the platform of our great party, the APC,” Mr Ganduje told voters at the rally.
The governor said the Kano State government and the APC in the state are against the timing of the naira redesign policy of the CBN governor.
“Currency redesign is done across the globe, but not in the way we are witnessing in our country. The timing is wrong, the deadline given is very wrong and deliberate,” Mr Ganduje said.
Mr Ganduje said he is summoning bank managers in the state for a briefing with the aim of finding a solution to cushion the effects of the hardship caused by the scarcity of naira notes.
“They should come over and explain to us, why our people are still suffering over this issue of naira swap. And I will go to them individually to supervise what is happening and what,” the governor said.
Meanwhile, Mr Ganduje said the Kano government will distribute palliative to residents across the state to mitigate the suffering caused by the naira redesign.
“We have a plan in the pipeline to start distributing palliatives very soon across all the 44 local governments, to cushion the effect of the hardship caused by the CBN Governor, to our people,” the governor said.
Mr Ganduje visited the palaces of the district heads of Kunchi and Tsanyawa local governments. He urged community leaders to create awareness in their areas of influence that the hardship people face is caused by the CBN Governor, to confuse the democratic process.
The CBN announced the redesign of the three largest denominations of the naira – N200, N500, and N1,000 – in October. Many Nigerians have condemned the policy due to the scarcity of new notes.
