Alhaji Atiku Abubakar

Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has advised the Central Bank of Nigeria to tackle the difficulties being faced by ordinary Nigerians because of the naira redesign policy. Serpentine queues now characterise entrances of banks all over the country as people either want to dump their old notes or get new ones.

In a statement from his Abuja office on Wednesday, Atiku praised the CBN for granting a ten-day extension for the exchange of old naira notes for new ones. He, however, advised that no “further extension should be considered after February 10 so as not to destroy the purpose and objective of initiating the redesigning of the currency.”

According to the statement: “Within these ten days, I urge the CBN to initiate measures that will alleviate the problems being encountered by the people in exchanging their old naira notes for new ones and getting more new notes into circulation the CBN may have to consider printing more currency notes to eliminate the current scarcity among ordinary people, especially rural dwellers who need them for their daily transactions,” Atiku was quoted as saying.

“If the CBN thinks its officials and banks must operate at the weekend in other to address the need of the ordinary people and rural dwellers, it may have to consider this option, after all the amount these people require is not huge. The essential element here is ensuring that the new currency goes around and is well distributed to the points where people can easily access them. Every good policy must be people-centred and must not bring avoidable difficulty to the people.

“However, the CBN should be wary of the elite whose motive for crying out about a further postponement of the deadline for the tenure of the old naira notes is sinister and far from being altruistic. I am totally in support of building a cashless economy and reducing the amount of cash in our economy.

“The cashless policy and reduction of the cash in circulation has many advantages, and every patriotic Nigerian should support the CBN on this. It will help to reduce the flow of illicit funds in our economy. It will help to defeat the funding of terrorism and deter the circulation of drug money in our economy. It will help our fight against corruption.

“More importantly, a cashless economy will help to save and grow our democracy. Those who have devised several means of buying votes in the coming elections and using money to corrupt the electoral system as well as destroying the principle of one man/woman, one vote and the goal of a credible, peaceful, free, and fair poll are the ones shouting against the cashless policy and naira redesign.

“The anti-democratic elements who are pretending to be democrats are the ones ganging up against the CBN because of the currency redesign and the cashless regime it seeks to enthrone. They have been scheming and lobbying day and night to frustrate the policy. Now, their new measure is to lobby for a second postponement of the deadline for the change of currency. I urge the CBN and the government to ignore their antics. The CBN should not succumb to the current pressure.

“There should be no further postponement on the new naira regime after the expiration of the February 10 deadline. The vote riggers are seeking to push the CBN to extend till after the election when they would have achieved their evil plots. The CBN and the Presidency should be steadfast. The merits of the new naira policy far outweigh the little inconvenience we are experiencing.”