Election Beckons! Tinubu celebrates, Says, Supreme Court has saved Nigeria

The camp of the All Progressives Congress has erupted in ecstatic celebration over the decision of the Supreme Court to halt the deadline for the naira swap, planned by the Federal Government, through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for February 10.

It comes with Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu, the party’s presidential candidate, who had complained endlessly that he was the target of the CBN policy, which had seen Nigeria in crisis over the weeks, hailing the trio of Nasir El-Rufai, Yahaya Bello and Bello Matawalle, the governors of Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara States, who took the matter to the apex court.

Conveying his sentiments through Bayo Onanuga, spokesman of the APC Presidential Campaign Council (APC-PCC), said the governors acted well on behalf of the hapless Nigerians who have been made to bear the brunt of naira redesign policy that has been poorly implemented

The Supreme Court on Wednesday morning, in a suit brought before it by the governments of Zamfara, Kogi and Kaduna States, issued an interim injunction against the CBN and Federal Government, allowing the old N200, N500 and N1000 notes to remain legal tender beyond February 10 deadline.

Onanuga, Director, Media and Publicity of the APC-PCC, said in a statement: “I want to salute the courage of our Governors and most 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 pains 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 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 standard bearer called on the CBN to ensure that the Supreme Court ruling is effectively executed by taking all necessary steps to ensure sufficient availability of naira notes (old or new) and properly sensitising the public on the ruling and the consequent validity of old notes.