By Adekunle Sulaimon, Atiku Abubakar, the People’s Democratic Party’s candidate for president, has pleaded with the Federal Government not to use Nigerians as scapegoats in the “continuing battle of titans over the redesign of the naira.”
Tuesday, Atiku’s media aides issued a statement in Abuja in which he made the appeal.
He stated that the Federal Government had a responsibility to swiftly ensure that commercial banks did not become obstacles to “the well-thought-out policy 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,” according to the statement.
The former vice president lamented that the country’s poor implementation of the naira redesign policy by commercial banks had caused widespread anxiety.
“At the moment, businesses and cash-dependent smallholder enterprises are all in serious trouble. To prevent the economy from collapsing, this must be addressed immediately.
According to Atiku, he had crucially intervened in the naira redesign on January 28 by requesting that the Federal Government and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) reconsider the deadline in light of the difficulties faced by the general public.
He reiterated that, in contrast to other regions of the world where policies of a similar nature were implemented, the policy was being mismanaged.
He claims that the policy’s implementation flaws are driving millions of Nigerians into a deep sense of helplessness and despair.
The presidential hopeful continued, “in recent weeks, social tension has been growing across Nigeria on account of the poor management of the redesign of the naira policy.”