Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai has stated that two of the presidential candidates own licensed banks in the country.
The governor claimed in a statewide broadcast on Thursday night that the opposition’s standard bearers and running mate have access to massive funds ahead of the general elections.
The governor claimed that the candidates who supported the CBN’s poorly implemented policy are self-centered and had privileged access to large sums of money.
El-Rufai claimed that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and other “disgruntled” federal officials persuaded President Muhammadu Buhari that the naira redesign policy is working.
Attempts to persuade the Buhari administration to change the policy’s implementation to avoid unintended consequences, according to the former Minister, were futile.
He said:
In the pursuit of these objectives, the Central Bank of Nigeria and these other disgruntled Federal officials have so far convinced the President that it is fine for ordinary citizens to be dispossessed of their hard-earned money, and starved if need be, while small and medium-sized businesses are deprived of access to their capital, thereby bringing trade and exchange to a grinding halt.
All our efforts to modify the implementation of the policy to avoid what we assumed were unintended consequences were unsuccessful. I chose to speak out first as one person that has been particularly close to the President, believing that his actions were motivated by innocence, and mindful of his legacy.
I have no regrets for doing my duty in this regard. One day, the President will appreciate what some of us are being insulted for today. Yet, the politicians that the officials have convinced the President to regard as the real targets of the currency redesign policy have not been impeded in any way by it so far.
Indeed, two of the presidential candidates and a running mate of the opposition parties own or have preferred access to some of the licensed banks. For that reason and by various clandestine arrangements, these politicians have access to hundreds of millions of these new notes, while the traders, merchants, students, and other citizens are queuing for days to withdraw a few thousand Naira just to buy food and necessaries.
Within two to three weeks of implementation, it was clear to everyone that the architects of this policy can see that it is our people that are being terribly affected and not the politicians.
It is quite unfortunate that many politicians who either own banks or have privileged access to money are so insulated from the pains of the talakawa that they are recklessly endorsing a policy that is being badly implemented.