.Warn FG, CBN to respect verdict
From Okwe Obi, Abuja
Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG), has welcomed the Supreme Court ruling for stoping the implementation of the February 10 naira swap deadline.
To this end, it warned the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Federal Government to respect the order, for the sake of peace.
Spokesman of CNG, Spokesperson, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, in a statement yesterday, deplored the way some “mushroom, obscure and unpatriotic groups of political merchants” were supporting the policy that is dragging the country to the brink.
Suleiman lamented that President Muhammadu Buhari, whom Nigerian voters trusted in 2015, has failed to address the fundamentals of the nation’s existence.
“In 2015, Nigerian voters trusted Buhari to lead our nation through and out of its limitations, into a future in which we will live secure lives and pursue livelihoods in a united Nigeria whose resources will be protected.
“Unfortunately however, with the ill-advised ratification of a regime of harsh economic policies, added to a lingering fuel crisis, the current administration has inadvertently acquired the reputation of being the worst in the history of our nation, in terms of any capacity to generate confidence in the minds of even the masses of the people from where it extracted most of its winning votes.
“This is because a handful of dubious elements that surround the President that has turned the administration into a citadel of poor governance, indifference, insensitivity and unprecedented corruption.
“This ruthless cabal along with Godwin Emefiele have in the process dragged the CBN into partisanship, and come up with policies that end up making life difficult for the people,” he said.
He claimed that policy was clearly aimed at achieving dubious political goals; and one clearly designed to weaken the northern region especially has created developments and difficult circumstances that no one expected the nation will confront.
“We therefore find it unrealistic and unjustifiable that in the desperation to get even with a certain individual and frustrate his presidential bid, the entire country and its people should be thrown into this level of unforgivable suffering.
“As fallout of the chronic cash scarcity resulting from the rigid implementation of the unpopular currency swap policy, several commercial banks have begun to close shop for fear of unforseen circumstances.
“Against the failures and abuses by administration officials, hunger is stalking millions of homes, inflation is making life difficult by the day, people are losing jobs, businesses are closing down, young Nigerians are losing hope.
“For us in the North, policing lives and livelihoods of communities is now a major problem.
“Part of the shared bad legacy of the Buhari administration include the current condition of roads like the Abuja – Kano dual carriage way, the dangerous de-industrialization of the North and the skewed allocation of electric power to various parts of the north which are today compounded by poorly-designed economic policies.
“We appreciate the caution that the fight against corruption must be isolated from partisan influence, but under no circumstances should it be compromised,” he said.