Civil society rejects February 10 deadline for currency swap

By Mohammed Sabiu, Kaduna

The Joint Front of Civil Society Organizations of Nigeria (JFCSON) has said that the 10-day extension of the currency swap is extremely hard on the masses as they bear the brunt of the scarcity of the naira.

In a statement from the national president, Barnabas Bala Yock and made available to Tribune Online on Friday, he noted that it had been following developments since October, when the Central Bank of Nigeria under its governor, Godwin Emefiele, introduced a controversial naira redesign policy. banknotes announced. .

“We saw how Emefiele unnecessarily pushed for the imposition of an unreasonable, unrealistic 30-day time frame for the old naira notes to cease to be legal tender, in total denial of the apparent national deficiency in the necessary technological infrastructure for the process.

“This was followed by another announcement by the CBN of a cash withdrawal limit of just 20,000 per day, which was later revised to 50,000 following a spontaneous national backlash.

We also note Emefiele’s rigid insistence on the implementation of these harsh, inhumane and insensitive money policies to a point of neglect of their widespread rejection by the vast majority of Nigerians, including the National Assembly and all state governors.

“We note the patriotic intervention of the ruling party’s presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, whose courageous outburst exposed a sinister agenda for the destabilization of the nation and the consequent sinking of a smooth transition to a freely and fairly elected successive government.

The statement noted that this intervention succeeded in forcing the CBN governor and his associates to withdraw and adjust the naira swap deadline by an additional 10 days.

“It also exposed a great collaboration between the opposition People’s Democratic Party, its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar and a clique in the presidential mansion to carry out this diabolical plan.

Tinubu’s intervention was generally welcomed by all but the PDP and its presidential candidate whose personal wealth and personal ambition remained tied to the continuation of the decline and destruction of a nation and a people.

Atiku’s recent remarks against the extension of the exchange deadline, and PDP’s challenge to Asiwaju’s patriotic intervention, have confirmed that Atiku and the PDP are part of the dangerous collaboration to tamper with the democratic processes and provoke greater conflicts that the system.

“We find it rather unfortunate, inappropriate and unstately, inexcusable and unacceptable for Atiku, a man who has spent most of his life asking Nigerians to entrust him with leadership, to be among those encouraging policies that may negatively impact on the lives and livelihoods of the very people he seeks to rule.

To this end: “We condemn and reject the vicious collaboration to deliberately derail the country’s hard-earned democracy, imposing harshly unrealistic policies by calculated design to continually weaken and economically impoverish the masses of the people.

“We reject the average 10-day extension of the currency swap deadline and the inhumane cash withdrawal limit.

We condemn the public support for this policy by the PDP and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.

“We call on the Nigerian electorate to take note of those political office seekers and to remember those who stood by and with the people and those who tried to take advantage of the people’s weakness by avoiding the imposition of harsh economic realities on the nation. supports.