Published 2nd Feb, 2023

By Tarinipre Francis

On Thursday, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, the presidential candidate of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), while speaking on the impact of the naira redesign, stated that some of his colleagues owned banks and were thus unaffected by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s cash swap policy.

Kwankwaso disclosed this while appearing on Channels TV’s Sunrise Daily morning show.

The CBN’s naira redesign has been heralded by some as a move to curb vote buying in the coming elections.

The NNPP presidential candidate disagrees, noting that the masses were suffering the brunt of the CBN’s policy, and that the CBN was unaware of the people’s plight.

He said, “What the government is saying is that it has to do with people who will want to take too much money, leaders in politics and so on. They don’t know that many of our colleagues, those who are contesting, especially presidential candidates, and by extension, all those in their political parties are owners of these banks.

“I’m sure one or two of them may have large shares in some of these banks. And state governments also in their states, I can’t remember any bank managing director who will say no to its host state.

“They’ll lose nothing. And they have governors. PDP has governors, APC has governors. I’m sure by now they would have collected so much money.”

As the February 10 deadline for old naira notes draws closer, the latest trends in the country now include long endless queues at banks and increased POS charges.

Nigerians have continued to express frustration over the unavailability of the fresh notes and difficulty accessing their money.

“Government should be in place to sort out issues for its people, not inflate unnecessary hardships,” Kwankwaso said.

According to him, the CBN legislation requires that people be given at least six months. “And for me, even six months is a short period of time,” he explained.

Kwankwaso noted that some people in politics might complain publicly for strategic reasons.

“Those who are complaining, I believe it’s just a gimmick. We believe that they don’t have any issue.

“You see the people with real issues are the masses, businessmen, petty traders,” he said.

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