Deji Elumoye, Adedayo Akinwale and Juliet Akoje in Abuja James Sowole in Abeokuta, Segun James in Lagos, Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt
The Vice-Presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Datti Baba-Ahmed yesterday described as “treasonable” the comments of Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State on the Naira redesign policy following the nationwide broadcast of President Muhammadu Buhari on the issue.El-Rufai in a state broadcast last Thursday faulted the President for his directive to re-introduce just the old N200 banknote as part of measures to curb the cash crunch in the country.
On the same day, a fresh round of protests erupted in Lagos, Ogun, Oyo and Rivers states, triggered by the inability of residents to access the new notes, the hardship caused by the Naira redesign policy, and President Buhari’s broadcast, which contrary to expectations, approved the return of only old N200 notes while the old N500 and N1000 notes were invalidated.
El-Rufai, who said during his broadcast that the old N1,000 and N500 were still legal tender in his state, stated further that the aim of the Naira redesign was to scuttle the general elections in order to allow an interim government led by a retired army general.
The big question on the lips of analysts last night regarding the el-rufai broadcast is: Can a sitting governor instigate a coup and claim immunity?However, speaking during a press conference in Abuja yesterday, the LP Vice-Presidential candidate said the governor’s comment amounted to treason and wondered why the presidency was silent.
He argued that there is only one authority in Nigeria which is the president and wondered how a governor could counter the directive of the president.“Anybody who commits this kind of indiscipline under our leadership would bear the full weight of the law. We have been more than bewildered at the failures we have witnessed in the past few days. However, it is more of an act of treason; so, to say, it is an act of treason. If an elected governor of a constituent part of a sovereign country will give direct instructions to the contrary of what is the exclusive preserve of the federal government.“Why as a Commander-in-Chief you give a clean executive constitutional order and a state governor goes out to say that you should continue to exchange those currencies? This is to say that there are two authorities in a country,” Baba-Ahmed said.
El-rufai said the development was meant to ensure that the presidential candidate of the ruling APC, Bola Tinubu, and other candidates of the party lose.He claimed that those who lost out in the party’s primaries were behind the plot.He said, “It is important for the people of Kaduna State, and indeed Nigeria, to know that contrary to the public pronouncements and apparent good intentions, this policy was conceived and sold to the President by officials who completely lost out in the gubernatorial and presidential primaries of the APC in June 2022.“Once Asiwaju Bola Tinubu emerged as the candidate in June 2022, and subsequently did not pick one of them as his running mate, this currency redesign policy was conceived to ensure that the APC presidential candidate is deprived of what they alleged is a humongous war chest.
“They also sought to achieve any one or more of the following objectives: create a nationwide shortage of cash so that citizens are incited to vote against APC candidates across the board resulting in massive losses for the party in all the elections; ensure that the cash crunch is so serious, along with the contrived and enduring fuel shortage existing since September 2022, that the 2023 elections do not hold at all, leading to an Interim National Government to be led by a retired Army General; sustain the climate of shortage of fuel, food and other necessities, leading to mass protests, violence and breakdown of law and order that would provide a fertile foundation for a military take-over.”Meeting with APC Governors.
The National Chairman of the APC, Senator Abdulahi Adamu will tomorrow hold an emergency meeting with the governors of the party.The National Publicity Secretary of the party, Felix Morka in a statement issued yesterday said the meeting would be held at the National Secretariat of the party in Abuja.However, the meeting may not be unconnected with the opposition of the APC governors to the Naira redesign policy of President Buhari.
