The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, has beseeched the Federal Government to avoid making Nigerians scapegoats “in the current war of titans over the redesign of the naira”.
On Tuesday, Atiku’s media aides issued a statement in Abuja in which he made the request.
He stated that the FG had a responsibility to ensure that commercial banks did not become roadblocks to “the well-thought-out concept of naira redesign.”
“It is commendable that the FG has rather preferred to work behind the scenes, based on the intelligence it is believed to have received, regarding suspicions that some presidential candidates may have stashed billions of naira as war-chest for vote-buying.’’
The former vice-president lamented that there had been widespread anxiety across the country, arising from poor execution of the naira redesign policy by commercial banks in the country.
“Businesses and cash-dependent smallholder enterprises are all currently in serious distress. This should be addressed urgently to save the economy from collapse.’’
Atiku stated that he made a critical intervention in the redesign of the naira on January 28, calling on the FG and the CBN to consider changing the deadline date in order to meet the issues being encountered by members of the public.
He reiterated that the program was being mishandled, in contrast to what had occurred in other regions of the world where comparable policies had been adopted.
Millions of Nigerians, he claims, are being pushed to desperation and despair as a result of the policy’s inadequacies in implementation.
“In recent weeks, social tension has been growing across Nigeria on account of the poor management of the redesign of the naira policy,’’ the presidential hopeful added.
