The presidential candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has hailed the Supreme Court judgement suspending the Federal Government’s plan to ban the use of the old naira notes from February 10, 2023.
Tinubu praised the 36 governors for standing by the masses over the controversial Central Bank Naira redesign and cashless policies.
He said that with the tensions generated by the policies, Nigeria was dangerously careering toward anarchy and political and economic shutdown.
According to him, the Supreme Court through its interim ruling has pulled the country back from the precipice.
Tinubu spoke through a statement issued by the Director of Media and Publicity for APC Presidential Campaign Council, Bayo Onanuga.
Recall that a seven-man panel of justices of the apex court on Wednesday granted an order of interim inunction restraining the Buhari government, the Central Bank of Nigeria, and commercial banks from suspending the old naira notes and stopping them from being legal tender by February 10, pending the hearing and determination of the motion for interlocutory injunction which shall be heard on February 15, 2023.
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Tinubu said, “I want to salute the courage of our governors, especially the Progressives Governors in APC, who acted to save our country from avoidable and dangerous political crises and social unrest, which the Central Bank policy on new Naira notes has brought on our country.
“Our country was dangerously careering toward anarchy and political and economic shutdown. But with the Supreme Court interim ruling our country has been pulled back from the precipice. We thank our Supreme Court Justices for ruling wisely on the side of the people who have been subjected to undue agony and pain since this policy was announced.
“The Federal Government and relevant stakeholders can now sit down and work out better framework on how to proceed with the new policy without causing any social and economic disruption and inconvenience to our people. We have examples of other countries that have successfully and seamlessly changed their currencies to learn from.
“Those countries give a long time, at least 12 months to effect the currency change. They do not engage in a CBN-like Fire Brigade approach. We have seen how a good policy can be poorly implemented to cause unintended problems for the people who should be the beneficiaries. While lessons have been learnt, we must now move on as a country and people with a Renewed Hope for a better tomorrow.
“The sole aim of my running to be the president of our country is to make life better and more abundant for our people and this is an ideal for which I will remain eternally committed to.”
Tinubu called on the CBN to ensure that the Supreme Court ruling is effectively executed by taking all necessary steps to ensure sufficient availability of naira notes, whether old or new, and properly sensitising the public on the ruling and the consequent validity of old naira.