Tinubu salutes governors over Supreme Court ruling on old naira deadline

The All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has heaped praises on all the governors from the 36 states of the federation for standing up for the Nigerian people who have been negatively impacted by the controversial Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) naira redesign and cashless policies.

Tinubu's reaction comes hours after the Supreme Court, in a suit brought before it by the governments of Zamfara, Kogi and Kaduna States, put a temporary halt to Federal Government's plan to stop the old N200, N500 and N1000 notes from being used as legal tender from February 10, 2023.

The interim injunction, granted by a seven-member panel led by Justice John Okoro, asked the government to maintain status quo until February 15, 2023 when the substantive motion will be addressed.

Reacting to the development, the excited Tinubu via a statement Bayo Onanuga, the Director, Media and Publicity, APC Presidential Campaign Council, said the governors, especially those elected on the platform of the APC, acted well on behalf of the hapless Nigerian masses who have been made to bear the brunt of naira redesign policy.

The APC presidential candidate also noted that the apex court ruling is in tandem with the advisory given by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) urging for the extension of the deadline for the swap of the old naira notes.

The statement read: “I want to salute the courage of our governors, especially the Progressives Governors in APC, who acted to save our country from avoidable and dangerous political crises and social unrest, which the Central Bank policy on new Naira notes has brought on our country.

“Our country was dangerously careering toward anarchy and political and economic shutdown. But with the Supreme Court interim ruling our country has been pulled back from the precipice. We thank our Supreme Court Justices for ruling wisely on the side of the people who have been subjected to undue agony and pain since this policy was announced.

“The Federal Government and relevant stakeholders can now sit down and work out better framework on how to proceed with the new policy without causing any social and economic disruption and inconvenience to our people. We have examples of other countries that have successfully and seamlessly changed their currencies to learn from.

“Those countries give a long time, at least 12 months to effect the currency change. They do not engage in a CBN-like Fire Brigade approach. We have seen how a good policy can be poorly implemented to cause unintended problems for the people who should be the beneficiaries. While lessons have been learnt, we must now move on as a country and people with a Renewed Hope for a better tomorrow.

“The sole aim of my running to be the president of our country is to make life better and more abundant for our people and this is an ideal for which I will remain eternally committed to.”

The APC presidential candidate further called on the CBN to ensure that the Supreme Court ruling is effectively executed by taking all necessary steps to ensure sufficient availability of the Naira (whether old or new) and properly sensitising the public on the ruling including the consequent validity of old notes."