• We are fully prepared for elections – INEC, IGP
• No need for time limit on currency swap – Lawan
From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
The Council of State meeting, presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari has thrown its weight behind the new naira note policy. But it says the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Godwin Emefiele, must make new Naira notes available or recirculate old Naira notes to ease the suffering of Nigerians.
The hybrid meeting, which lasted for over four hours at the Council Chambers of the Presidential Villa, Abuja, had in attendance former heads of state and president, including Gen. Yakubu Gowon (retd), Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar (retd) and Goodluck Jonathan, while former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, joined the meeting online.
Two former Chief Justices of the Federation, Alfa Belgore and Mahmud Muhammad, were also in attendance. Jointly briefing State House Correspondents at the end of the meeting, Governors of Taraba, Darius Ishaku, Lagos, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, and the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, said generally the policy was accepted by members but that they raised concerns about the implementations.
Ishaku said: “The CBN was advised to make money available in quantum. The old money can also be recirculated to ease the suffering of the poorest of the poor.”
Sanwo-Olu, on his part, said the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu, and Inspector General of Police (IGP), briefed the council on the state of preparedness for the 2023 general elections, and assured that they were fully prepared.
Malami said: “The two major resolutions that were driven arising from the deliberation of the meeting are one; that we are on course as far as election is concerned, and we are happy with the level of preparation by INEC and the institutions.
“Two, relating to the Naira redesign policy, the policy stands but then the council agreed that there is need for aggressive action on the part of the CBN as it relates to the implementation of the policy by way of ensuring adequate provision is made with particular regard to the supply of the Naira in the system.”
Speaking to journalists after a separate meeting with the President, Lawan, said that he informed Buhari that the National Assembly has resolved that there should be no cap on currency swap policies because of the way the scenario is now playing out and how it impacts the constituents who make up their constituency.
“For us in the Senate, initially we felt that this policy in the first place is not a bad one. But we also feel there is no need for a time limit. Allow the old and the new to co-exist until the old is phased out. So, what is wrong in that? This is not going to be the first country to deploy it that way; other countries have been doing the same thing. And to say that in three months it will be okay, it is not okay. Especially in a country like ours where maybe 80, 85, 90 per cent of the population have no access to banks.
“When Britain changed their currency, it took them over one year to change and the validity of the old remains and remains a legal tender, so why ours? We are not cashless yet and that society is cashless already and they needed even more time.
“So, we should have an open-ended time but what will make it quick is for us to have more and more of the new currencies and then they co-exist with the old ones until the old dies a natural death.”