A group, Arewa4Asiwaju, has hailed the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu, for speaking up against the January 31 deadline initially set for the swap of the old naira notes for the redesigned ones.
The group said Tinubu’s declaration at Abeokuta, Ogun State, forced the Federal Government to extend the January 31 deadline to February 10.
This, the Tinubu support group said, saved the nation from going up in flames, following the anger which pervaded the atmosphere before the sudden 10-day extension.
Arewa4Asiwaju, while attributing the sudden 10-day extension of the naira swap to what it called Tinubu’s sagacity and courage, said “it was this courage and purposeful leadership shown by the Asiwaju that compelled the government to go back on its earlier ‘no going back’ stance”.
According to the group, Nigerians owe Tinubu gratitude for stepping in and risking everything to change the obviously bad situation occasioned by the initial January 31 deadline.
A statement by the group’s North-Central coordinator, Aliyu Pass, released in Kaduna on Monday, partly read, “Whether anyone wants to believe it or not, it is the courageous sagacity displayed by Tinubu that invariably saved the Nigerian commoner from suffering the pains of the initial timeline set by the Federal Government for the unpopular new currency swap.
“And by that singular action, Tinubu also saved the nation from going up in flames as consequence of the raging public anger that pervaded the atmosphere before the sudden 10-day extension.
“Tinubu, proving himself a great statesman, in his now famous Abeokuta declaration, took the bold and necessary step of alerting to the dangers inherent in the new naira policy, its timing and deadline.
“Apparently rattled, the President invited Asiwaju to Daura where the man stood his ground insisting the policy was unnecessary, unpopular and would only harm the common man and lead to greater conflict.
“The nation certainly owe Tinubu immense gratitude for stepping in and risking everything to save an obviously bad situation.”
