NAIRA REDESIGN, PETROLEUM SCARCITY ARE PLOTS BY SOME ELEMENTS IN ASO ROCK AGAINST TINUBU –EL-RUFAI

NAIRA REDESIGN, PETROLEUM SCARCITY ARE PLOTS BY SOME ELEMENTS IN ASO ROCK AGAINST TINUBU –EL-RUFAI

Nasir El-Rufai, the Governor of Kaduna State has claimed that there are certain elements in the Aso Rock working against the victory of the APC Presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the forthcoming election.

Gov El-Rufai, during an interview with Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Wednesday, made this disclosure. He said he is convinced that there are some elements in the Aso Rock whose interests do no align with the party’s interest and such people are allegedly plotting to ensure that the party’s interest in the 2023 Presidential elections do not come to fruition.

When asked by the interviewer if there are certain persons in the villa whose interests do no align with the general interest of the party, Gov El-Rufai said he believes there are certain elements close to the President who are working against the party in the forthcoming election because their candidate did not win the primary election.

To justify his claim that there are certain elements in the Aso Rock working against the APC Presidential candidate, the Kaduna State Governor used the recent redesign of naira notes as a case study. El-Rufai disclosed that the redesign of naira notes is a good idea but the timing is not right.

El-Rufai said that during the first regime of President Buhari in 1984 –the Buhari/Idiagbon Military Regime– the naira notes were also changed but it was done sequentially with a view to catching people who stashed illicit funds and it was a very good intention. He said naira redesign is good idea but the current timing of CBN’s naira redesign is not right.

“The second example I will give is this currency redesign. You have to understand the President. People are blaming the Governor of the CBN for currency redesign. No! You have to go back and look at the President’s first outing as President. He did this.”

“Buhari/Idiagbon regime changed our currency and did it in sequence with a view to catching those that are stashing away illicit funds. It is a very good intention; a very clean intention. The President’s hat is white but doing it at this time; within the time allotted just doesn’t make any political or economical sense”.

He further explained that the interest of the President doesn’t necessarily represent the interest of his political party, APC. Citing an example, El-Rufai said himself and other stakeholders of the APC, in 2021, had a meeting with the President and reached an agreement to remove fuel subsidy. He said the President agreed but as soon as they left, the President was convinced otherwise by those close to him.

El-Rufai added that,“We support the idea of redesign. We know that there are people with stashes of cash, we also want that mopped up but we should not in the process make ordinary people suffer or ignite the anger of the voters against our party as if it is our party’s. it is not!”

“It is the policy of a few people and it is probably either not well thought through or intentionally designed to crash the political process because what happens if tomorrow people start protesting that they don’t have cash, they can’t transact. People are trading by barter because many that have deposited their cash cannot get the new currency”.

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