President Muhammadu Buhari says the decision of CBN to redesign Naira notes will proceed as planned.
Buhari said this in interview he granted after meeting with King Charles III at Buckingham Palace in the United Kingdom.
On October 26, Godwin Emefiele, governor of the CBN, announced the plan to redesign the currency to control money supply and aid security agencies in tackling illicit financial flow.
The redesigned notes include: N200, N500 and N1000.
Speaking less than 48-hours after the announcement, Zainab Ahmed, Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, said the ministry was not consulted by the CBN before it took its decision.
Responding to the Minister’s statement, Buhari said the CBN had his support to redesign the naira notes.
In Buhari’s latest comments on the matter, after meeting with the UK monarch, he told reporters that enough time has been given by the CBN for Nigerians to deposit the present naira notes in banks in exchange for the newly redesigned ones which will be issued by December 15, 2022.
“On this change of currency, there will be a lot of money but time has been given from October to December. Three months is enough for whatever money you have, to get it changed through the legal system.
So, I don’t know why people are complaining about it,” Buhari said
Declaring his full support for the naira redesign, the president said “there’s no going back.”
Buhari further stressed that politicians will not be allowed to mobilise resources and thugs to intimidate voters in the 2023 general election.
“My aim is to make sure that Nigerians believe that we respect them as an administration,” he said.
“So, Nigerians should vote for whoever they like from whichever political party. Nobody will be allowed to mobilise resources and thugs to intimidate people in any constituency.
“That is what I want to go down in Nigerian history.”
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When asked about the chances of the APC in the 2023 elections, Buhari said, “What are the chances of my party not winning the election? We are going to win the election.
He added that APC is very lucky to have Bola Tinubu as it’s presidential candidate in the 2023 general elections.
“Tinubu, the presidential candidate, a very well-known politician in the country, he was a two-term governor in Lagos State, the most resourceful state and the most visited state. So, I think the party was lucky to get him to be the candidate.We are very lucky to have him as our candidate,”he said
Those contesting with Tinubu in the 2023 include; Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Rabiu Kwankwaso of the News Nigeria People’s Party, NNPP and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) among others.