The ardent supporters of the ruling party, the APC, questioned the CBN governor’s sincerity because he had previously run for president.
Alhassan Ado Doguwa, the majority leader in the House of Representatives, has expressed his opinion that President Muhammadu Buhari was “misled” over the redesign of the N200, N500, and N1,000 banknotes by Godwin Emefiele, the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Doguwa, an All Progressives Congress (APC) member and chairman of the House Adhoc Committee on the redesign of three naira notes, expressed his confidence that the president will act appropriately to make amends for his actions.
The legislator, who spoke on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Monday, claimed that the naira exchange will scuttle the 2023 general elections and questioned the CBN governor’s sincerity because he had previously run for president of the APC.
The congressman explained his belief that the president was duped into approving the redesign of the three bank notes as follows: “The president as chief executive of government or the president as C-in-C (commander-in-chief), who is of course the leader of the party on the other hand.I also want to take a different perspective on the central bank and Emefiele’s role as governor.
“Perhaps the President is given a misinformed briefing that is too vague for him to even appreciate its ramifications, in which case he is unavoidably compelled to act incorrectly.” That is both my suspicion and my understanding.
According to the APC stalwart, the CBN governor’s refusal to accept the invitation from the green chamber is a violation of the CBN Act and the legislative branch of government. He insisted on this during their meeting on Sunday.
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The president’s extension of the deadline, according to Doguwa, proves that he wasn’t properly informed about the repercussions of the naira redesign prior to the execution of the programme.
“It [the extension] goes to confirm to you that if the President was really told ab initio of the implications and result of the naira redesign, then without a doubt he wouldn’t have come now to say, “Let’s extend it by 10 days,” which implies there is a problem.
In light of this, Doguwa said, “I am confident that Mr. President will be a humble leader to understand when he is misled, and he should be able to now come look at the right thing and take the right decision like he is doing now.” However, if he continues to ignore an invitation from the lower chamber, the House will go ahead and issue an arrest warrant for the apex bank chief.
On October 26, 2022, the CBN revealed its intention to redesign the three banknotes. On November 23, 2022, Buhari revealed the updated N200, N500, and N1,000 notes. The apex bank set a deadline of January 31 for the previous notes to remain valid.
The CBN also set weekly restrictions on cash withdrawals at N500,000 for private individuals and N5,000,000 for corporate businesses.
As the January 31 deadline drew near and the National Assembly requested a six-month delay, many Nigerians bemoaned the lack of new notes.
But the head of the top bank claimed after a meeting with the president on Sunday that Buhari had approved the deadline’s extension to February 10.
