Buhari Out To Truncate Democracy — Gov. Ganduje

Kano State Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje has said that President Muhammadu Buhari’s currency redesign program is aimed at undermining Nigeria’s democracy.

Ganduje talked late Wednesday in Kano with the Forum of Former Parliamentarians, North-West Zone, who came to inform him of their intention to support the presidential ambitions of the ruling All Progressives Congress’s Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu (APC).

Kano State is one of the states disputing the policy’s validity at the Supreme Court. Ganduje’s claim comes in the wake of the difficulties Nigerians are having in accessing the new N200, N500, and N1,000 notes.

In his address to Nigerians on Thursday, President Buhari stated that the currency exchange was intended to combat inflation and other violations. Previously, the Kano governor was not known for publicly criticizing President Buhari because he was one of the persons who worked hard to sell the president to the electorate.

Ganduje expressed regret that, despite the APC’s collaborative efforts to achieve Buhari’s election victories in 2015 and 2019, following many setbacks, the president had determined to repay the party and those who backed him by destroying the party that brought him to power.

He said, “Imagine someone has been contesting without winning elections until after a merger was formed. He won the election and spent four years and re-contested again and he won, now that he is about to go, he is doing nothing but to destroy the party that elected him,” Ganduje said.

On the proposal, Ganduje questioned why the president and CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, did not consider it seven years ago, and why it had to be implemented on the eve of an election.

“What is wrong with doing it after elections? Why hasn’t he done this in the past seven years? What is the meaning of all these? This CBN governor is not a politician; he doesn’t know anything about politics. How can a politician enjoy this policy? Imagine how as a leader you watch banks engulfed by fire, if not that the democracy has decayed, will that be possible?

“How is it possible when the World Bank said the policy is wrong, the IMF said it is wrong, other leaders said it is wrong, but you said you need seven days to think over it? The poor man selling vegetables will have his goods rotten (before the end of the thinking period), that is why I close down one supermarket for rejecting the old notes. The Supreme Court has said the old notes are still a legal tender, that is why any bank that refuses to collect, I will revoke their certificate and if they do that, they cannot work”, he said.

Ganduje also indicated that Tinubu would withdraw the proposal following the election. He stated that the policy was not that of the ruling party, but that they are aware that it is part of a scheme to prevent elections from taking place, comparing the situation to how MKO Abiola was denied the presidency.

“It was like this at the time of SDP with the Association of Better Nigeria (ABN); the CBN governor is the ABN of this dispensation.

“Therefore, this is even beyond not wanting someone to win the election; it is democracy itself they don’t want. They want to set up an interim government committee like that of (Ernest) Shonekan.

“Which credible politician do you think they can put to head such a committee? Except you just bring people that do not represent the masses but their families, those are the ones you can bring to form interim government,” he said, adding that these people will be puppeteer to ensure only the candidate of their choice emerges victorious.

Alhaji Adamu Panda, convener of the former parliamentary forum, said the group agreed that the next president should be someone who believes in the ideology of building the people in order to improve the nation.

He stated that they believed the unwritten agreement between the North and South had to be followed, and that keeping the country stable and together was consequently important to all.

“Support for power-shift is therefore necessary for us,” he said.

The conference further stated that the North’s support for any other presidential candidate other than Tinubu could jeopardize the North-South partnership, leading the South West to seek alliances elsewhere.

Attempts to obtain the presidency’s comment to what Ganduje said were unsuccessful at the time of publication.

President Buhari said yesterday in a national broadcast that old N500 and N1000 notes were no longer lawful cash, notwithstanding the Supreme Court’s February 8 order prohibiting the CBN and federal government from phasing out the old notes by February.

The central bank redesigned the N200, N500, and N1000 notes late last year and imposed a January 31 deadline for the usage of old naira notes. Buhari advised Nigerians to exchange the impacted currencies at the Central Bank of Nigeria and other specified locations.

However, in response to tremendous pressure, the CBN extended the deadline until February 10.

Some governors filed a complaint in the Supreme Court two days before the deadline, and the court barred the CBN from prohibiting the use of old naira notes beginning February 10, 2023, but Emefiele claimed there was no need for the deadline to be pushed back.

In his broadcast, Buhari acknowledged the hardships that Nigerians are experiencing as a result of the naira redesign policy, stating that he had directed the CBN to issue replacement notes.

From February 10, 2023 until April 10, 2023, he extended the validity of only existing N200 notes to circulate as legal tender alongside the new N200, N500, and N1000 banknotes for 60 days.