Buhari wants to sabotage Nigeria’s democracy with naira redesign – Gov. Ganduje

The Governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano state has said President Muhammadu Buhari is planning to sabotage the the democracy of Nigeria with the policy of naira redesign put forward by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.

The Governor made this revelation while addressing the association of former parliamentarians, North-West zone in Kano.

The former legislators paid the governor a visit to inform him their intentions to support the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Bola Tinubu.

The Informant247 recalls that the state was one of the states that dragged the federal government and the apex bank to the Supreme Court, to challenge the legality of the redesigned currency policy.

Ganduje made this allegation as the people are passing through hardship and discomfort to get the new naira notes.

The president in his message to the people of Nigeria, revealed that the redesigned currency policy was put in place against inflation and other infractions.

The Governor of Kano State, before now does not criticise the Nigerian leader as he was one of those who supported him to become president.

Ganduje lamented the policy of the president which could affect the party in the forthcoming presidential election.

He said the party supported the president to power and it’s unfortunate that he decides to repay the party in this manner.

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.

The Governor said the policy was not supposed to be put in place on the eve of the 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.

The Governor added that the presidential candidate of the party would revoke the policy as soon as he emerges the winner of the election.

He said the redesigned currency policy was not an initiative of the ruling party but one aimed at stopping the election from taking place.

He said this was similar to how the mandate of MKO Abiola was denied in 1993.

“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.

The convener of the former parliamentarian forum, Alhaji Adamu Panda, said “Support for power-shift is therefore necessary for us”.