Six days to the 2023 general election, there appears to be confusion in Nigeria’s ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) over the insistence of President Muhammadu Buhari to continue with the naira redesign policy despite opposition among key party leaders.
Some APC chieftains say that the naira redesign was a calculated attempt by certain individuals to make the party’s candidate lose the election.
In the last few days, the party has been thrown apart, in which some leaders who were perceived to be close to the President have publicly criticised his decision to continue with the naira policy.
Their grouse is not that such a policy was not desirable but the timing is the point of contention.
Nasir El-Rufai, governor of Kaduna State, had while speaking on a television interview recently, accused some individuals within the Presidential Villa, Abuja of plotting the failure of the party’s presidential candidate.
“I believe there are elements in the Villa that want us to lose the election because they didn’t get their way; they had their candidate. Their candidate did not win the primaries.
“They are trying to get us to lose the election, and they are hiding behind the president’s desire to do what he thinks is right.
“I will give two examples: this petroleum subsidy, which is costing the country trillions of Naira, was something that we all agreed would be removed,” he said.
“In fact, I had a discussion with the president and showed him why it had to go. Because how can you have a capital budget of N200bn for federal roads and then spend N2 trillion on petroleum subsidy? This was a conversation I had with the president in 2021 when the subsidy thing started rising. He was convinced. We left. It changed. Everyone in the government agreed, and it changed.
“The second example I will give is this currency redesign. You have to understand the president. People are blaming the Governor of the Central Bank for the currency redesign, but No. You have to go back and look at the first outing of Buhari as president. He did this; the Buhari, Idiagbon regime changed our currency and did it in secrecy with a view to catching those that are stashing away illicit funds. It is a very good intention. The president has his right. But doing it at this time within the allotted time does not make any political or economic sense.”
El-Rufai is among the governors that dragged the Federal Government to court over the naira policy.
He accused the President of going against the Supreme Court judgment and acting dictatorially. The governor said the old notes were still valid in his state.
Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje lashed out at President Buhari over the naira redesign policy, saying that the chances of the ruling party in the general election may be adversely affected. He wondered why Buhari is pursuing the policy at this point.
“Look at this person, who had contested several times without winning. No sooner than a merger took place, he won an election. After four years, he got re-elected. Now he is going after his tenure but there is nothing he is doing than to destroy the same party that helped him to power. How could anybody be like that?” Ganduje asked.
“Then it’s time for the election and you just bring this policy. For God, why is this coming at this time? What’s the importance of doing it now? Why not after the election? Why not some seven years back before now? Every politician will question this: what’s the importance of this policy? The CBN governor doesn’t understand these things. He is not a politician but just like that… He is a nobody,” he said.
The governor said that the policy should have been introduced seven years ago, stressing that it was undemocratic the way it was implemented.
Observers say the seemingly conflicting position of the President and some APC governors on the naira redesign policy suggests that the party hierarchy is divided going into the general election and perhaps, could be a sign of bigger trouble ahead.
Across Nigeria, there is tension and confusion, owing to Nigerians’ inability to access their money and banks’ failure to pay the new naira notes.
Following the widespread public outrage, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had extended the deadline for exchanging old N200, N500, and N1,000 notes from the original date of January 31 to February 10, but the Supreme Court ruled that the Federal Government and the CBN should not continue with the deadline until the issue was resolved on February 15.
Apprehension however, rose to feverish height when on Wednesday, February 15, against all expectations, the Supreme Court shifted the date of ruling by one week- February 22.
The anger and confusion that arose from the apex court’s adjournment of the judgment may have warranted President Muhammadu Buhari to make a nationwide broadcast last Thursday, which maby observers interpreted to mean that he overruled the apex court.
In his broadcast, the President said that the old N500 and N1,000 notes would no longer be accepted, while only the N200 should be recognised.
He also ordered the CBN to reintroduced the already warehoused old N200 notes into circulation.
The broadcast again engendered so much confusion as those who had been accepting and trading with the old notes became stranded.
At least, seven APC states have already sued the Nigerian government in the Supreme Court over the policy.
Few days to the Presidential election there is an air of uncertainty in the country as Nigerians are unsure if the election would still go ahead.
Some days, ago the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said it was still waiting for the needed funds to prosecute the elections.
Meanwhile, there are growing fears that the planned strike by bank workers from Monday may negatively affect preparations by the Commission and among Nigerians for the general election.
In the last few days there have been protests across several states over the continued scarcity of cash.
On Wednesday, about three people were killed in Edo State during protests in several parts of the state.
About two commercial banks were also burned, while security agencies stopped attempts to invade the CBN office in the state.
On Friday, hoodlums violently attacked some commercial banks in the Epe area of Lagos State.
Sources claimed that some banks, including Zenith, Key Stone, First Bank and United Bank for Africa (UBA) have temporarily suspended operations in Epe as a result of the attack.
A source said the attack was as a result of the inability of the masses to access cash from the affected banks.
The Epe incident occurred following an uprising on Friday morning at Ojota-Mile 12 area of the state which was quelled by security operatives.
Considering the suffering of the people, who are also expected to vote this Saturday, many thought that Mr. President and the APC should have done everything possible to resolve the issue and alleviate the sufferings of the people. Failure to do that many are now asking if the APC is serious at winning this Saturday’s election with its maltreatment of the citizenry.
Equally, one is right to also ask, “Does APC know the election is 6 days ahead”?
“APC knows that Saturday is the election. It also knows that the suffering masses cannot vote for the party. So, its strategy, as usual, is to use intimidation and electoral fraud to rig the election,” Mark Onunze, an Aba-based lawyer, said.
According to Onunze, a former chairman of Abia State Local Government Employees Association, there is this feeling by the APC that we are in charge and can do anything.
“But things have changed; the masses are starving, angry and will definitely vent their anger on APC riggers this Saturday. There is also that feeling of ownership in the Abia PDP that no matter the situation, PDP will win in the state. That has all changed now, there will be surprises in this year’s elections,” the lawyer said.
The Northern Elders Forum (NEF) last week, criticised the naira redesign policy, saying it was ill-timed and has brought hardship on Nigerians.
In a media interview, NEF spokesman, Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, said that the resultant cash crunch had distorted the informal sector in the country.
He wondered why the naira redesign policy was initiated close to the general election, strongly believing that it has demarketed the APC.
“This money thing is a major demarketing thing for the APC.
“If the worst enemy of APC had designed a strategy for them to lose this election, he couldn’t have chosen a better fiasco around the reprinting of the naira,” he said.
The NEF spokesman further said that he can see danger ahead, adding that the President seems rather unwilling to listen.
Tope Musowo, Public policy expert, said although the policy was good, it came at the wrong time, stressing that the current climate may be difficult for elections to be conducted.
“I think what is happening just tells you about the sort of leader President Buhari is. We have seen him disobey the court on several occasions; we are only killing our institutions, because Buhari would come and go.
“Obviously, there is disagreement within leaders of the APC, but it just tells you that something is missing, or someone may be having different plans, because I don’t know why this policy at this time.
“There is no doubt it is good, but the timing. I hope INEC can get all the money they need to conduct elections, it does not look likely to me with the state of things,” he said.
Lagos State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Publicity Secretary, Hakeem Amode said the naira policy, though a good decision was not handled well, adding that the President should make the N200 notes available to ease the suffering of Nigerians.
“They should make the smaller notes available to Nigerians, people are suffering; it is very bad. Go round no bank is paying, how do you want people to cope? “he asked.
Of the above, the most disgruntling and worrisome is the body language of All Progressive Congress (APC), the ruling party.
The most worrisome is Bola Tinubu’s indicting utterances of President Muhammadu Buhari. Tinubu, the party’s presidential flag bearer, has been hard on Mr. President on the Naira redesign policy, fuel scarcity, among other issues that he claimed were orchestrated by some insiders against his success at the polls this Saturday. Of course, Nasir El-Rufai, the governor of Kaduna State, who has not been speaking for some time now and also a critic of Tinubu, surprisingly spoke out in support of Tinubu.
Read also: Emiefele, currency redesign, and APC hypocrisy!
In the same vein, Sam Onikoyi, a Nigerian diaspora and academia, noted that the ruling party knows that election is in six days time and will do the usual thing for victory, only if Nigerians allow themselves to be fooled again.
He regretted that the APC and PDP are still having crowds at their campaign rallies considering how both parties have plundered the country’s wealth, especially this administration that has left the country with a huge debt profile.
“If it is in Brussels where I live, the APC or PDP, the twin brothers of shame, cannot stand any election and win. The people will vote them out because of their sufferings under them. But the Nigerian politicians do not have conscience, if they do, commonsense should have told them that mitigating the sufferings before the election is the best campaign. Well, Nigerians should not allow money to buy their votes on Saturday. If they do, they should prepare for another ‘decade of locust’, Onikoyi warned.
He insisted that the APC knows and may be planning to shift the date if Saturday will not favour them or go out there on Saturday to intimidate life out of the innocent and real change-yarning voters.
On his part, Linus Pam Yakubu, a retired soldier, who had been involved in three general election duties while in service, decried that the APC has a different agenda for Nigerians by insisting on presenting awkward candidates against Nigerian unity, and also not bothered about the sufferings of the masses even days to the election.
“So, the party knows that Nigerians will not vote for their candidates and is plotting a dangerous game to retain power. But I think Nigerians are wiser now. I am a retired soldier and I am feeling the pains too, I have family and unfinished projects, and so do many people.
“We need progress for every Nigerian and the APC has failed to do that in almost eight years. Let more serious and masses loving candidates and not parties do that for Nigerians and not APC,” he said.
