“The policy is, more or less, like funds confiscation packaged so beautifully, but Mr. President was deceived in the implementation,”
The governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, has alleged that those he referred to as inherited Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members in the All Progressives Congress (APC) are behind the crisis that erupted from the Naira redesign policy.
He said President Muhammadu Buhari was misled.
The Supreme Court on Friday ordered that old N200, N500, and N1,000 notes which were initially suspended from circulating by the Central Bank of Nigeria through the orders of the President, remain in circulation till December 31, 2023.
The court held that the unlawful use of executive powers by the President, inflicted unprecedented economic hardship on the citizens by denying them ownership of and access to their money.
In his reaction to the judgement while speaking on a Channels Television programme, Politics Today on Friday, Governor Bello, who is one of the three original state governors that challenged the Federal Government at the Supreme Court, described it as sabotage by some party members and some others who crossed over from the opposition PDP.
“The policy is, more or less, like funds confiscation packaged so beautifully, but Mr. President was deceived in the implementation,” Bello said.
Asked to disclose the identity of those behind the alleged deception, he said, “Some (proponents of the policy) are members of our party, some are inherited PDP members in the party.
“Where have you ever seen an APC policy being implemented and you see opposition members praising it? This has happened in this particular instance.”
He maintained that the APC thinks over its policies before implementing them, saying that those that are not well thought out are always resisted. He said but in this case, the President’s economic advisers misled him.
“In APC, we agree to disagree, that is why we are serving the public,” Bello said.
“We think through our policies before they are implemented and those that are not well thought over before implementation that we know are going to affect the people, we will resist them and part of them is this naira redesign and every other issue that is contained with it.
“So, those that are advising Mr President economically misled him; in this particular instance, he didn’t get it right.”
Speaking about the just concluded presidential election in the country, Governor Bello was of the opinion that, the declaration of Bola Tinubu, the candidate of his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), as the winner was in tandem with the guidelines of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
“The 2023 presidential and National Assembly elections have come and gone. To the glory of God, we have a president-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“In every contest, there must be a winner and a loser. And of course, you can’t stop those that lose from venting their grievances and pointing out flaws. In every system of governance or electioneering, none is 100 percent perfect.
“But let me tell you that, substantially, INEC followed their guidelines and the rules of the game. Our president-elect today followed all these guidelines and the rules and today he has emerged the president-elect.”
According to him, Nigerians should come to terms with the reality that it now has a president-elect in the person of Tinubu.
The governor added that as much as he has supported the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, he is ready to support Tinubu’s government until the latter achieves success.
Bello said he is duty-bound to support the president-elect to succeed, adding allies like him must advise and guide him to ensure that he succeeds beyond Buhari.
“Despite all the achievements of Mr. President,. We want Asiwaju to achieve and succeed even more than him, and that is even the dream of our leader, President Muhammadu Buhari,” he said
He then urged the major contenders in the election (Atiku and Obi) to join hands with the president-elect for the betterment of the country.
“All I can tell my brothers and leaders, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, and the multitudes of the followers is to please calm down, let us have Nigeria first. Let us live in peace.
“Let us support Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu to implement the laudable programmes and policies that he’s coming up with, as contained in his roadmap, “The Renewed Hope 2023”.
“Once you’re not satisfied I’m happy they are taking the legal and very lawful means to seek redress, but we should not overheat the polity,” he said.