Kaduna State Governor Nasir El‑Rufai alleged on Sunday that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) was confiscating currency rather than carrying out the currency‑swap policy approved by President Muhammadu Buhari for the redesign of the naira. The naira crisis intensified last Thursday when President Buhari, in a nationwide broadcast, ignored a Supreme Court order and extended the validity of the old ₦200 notes while declaring the old ₦500 and ₦1,000 notes illegal. Buhari announced that the ₦200 note would remain legal tender for 60 days, until 10 April 2023, and urged Nigerians to deposit their old ₦500 and ₦1,000 notes with the CBN.
El‑Rufai criticised the President’s directive, saying it contravened the February 8 Supreme Court order that restrained the federal government from ending the cash‑swap policy on 10 February. Defying Buhari’s directive, the Kaduna government instructed ministries, departments and agencies to accept payments in both the old and new naira, and urged residents to continue using the old notes.
In a series of tweets on Sunday, the governor claimed the CBN was confiscating currency instead of facilitating the swap. He wrote: “Currency redesign was approved by the President and announced. Currency recoloring resulted. Currency swap was envisaged by s.20(3) of the Central Bank of Nigeria Act as approved by PMB. Swap means I take ₦100,000 to the bank in old notes & I receive ₦100,000 immediately in new notes. No more, no less.
During implementation of the cash swap, the CBN withdrew over ₦2 trillion from circulation but printed only ₦400 billion, so in effect, currency confiscation was then unilaterally and unlawfully implemented by the CBN. Trade and exchange have collapsed. Human suffering, impoverishment and economic contraction resulted.
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 the CBN to implement what was lawfully approved failed. Some state governments had no choice but to approach the Supreme Court for adjudication. The APC as a party and the Progressive Governors Forum are unanimous that policy implementation must be reviewed, and full compliance with the subsisting ruling of the Supreme Court be observed until final judgment on the suit instituted by the state governments.”
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