Naira Redesign: El-Rufai Reveals How CBN Changed What Buhari Originally Approved

The Governor of Kaduna State, Nasiru El-Rufai has claimed that what was approved by President Muhammadu Buhari was different from what the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, did regarding the redesigning and swapping of the currency.

The Governor, who has vehemently kicked against the new monetary policy by the Buhari administration, tried to make some explanations in a statement he titled: ‘Nigeria Update: ABC of Currency Redesign vs. XYZ of Cash Confiscation Explained’, shared on Twitter, Sunday night.

[b]The Governor claimed that while the President approved the redesign of the N200, N500 and N1000 notes, the CBN only did recolouring.

Currency redesign was approved by the President and announced. Currency recolouring resulted,” El-Rufai said.

He further claimed that the President approved currency swap, which means that Nigerians should deposit their old notes to the banks and receive the equivalents in return, while the CBN embarked on Naira confistication instead.

Currency swap was envisaged by s.20(3) of the Central Bank of Nigeria Act as approved by PMB. Swap means I take N100,000 to the bank in old notes & I receive N100,000 immediately in new notes. No more, no less,” he said.

The Governor said that the apex bank only printed N400 billion and withdrew over N2trn from the system during implementation of the cash swap, accusing the bank of unlawfully confiscating the naira notes, a decision, according to him, that saw trade and exchange collapse in the country and brought suffering, impoverishment and economic contraction.

The policy objective was derailed into a deliberate national fiasco to sabotage the elections in the name of preventing vote-buying. All efforts to get CBN to implement what was lawfully approved failed.

“Some State Governments had no choice but to approach the Supreme Court for adjudication,” he said, insisting that the ruling All Progressives Congress and all the Governors of the party are unanimous that the Federal Government must review the implementation of the new policy.

The Governor also said that there must be total compliance to the subsisting verdict of the apex court until final judgment.