Atiku to CBN: Don’t extend the new deadline for exchanging old naira notes

Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has urged the Central Bank of Nigeria to reject any additional extensions after the naira swap deadline of February 10.

Atiku Abubakar said in a statement released on Wednesday by his campaign headquarters that any additional extensions would be counterproductive to the goal of starting the currency overhaul.

He demanded that the apex bank quickly evaluate the procedures it has in place to ensure the smooth distribution of the new naira notes, noting that the extra ten days will allow citizens of the country’s rural areas and regular citizens to deposit whatever naira they may have in their possession.

According to the former Vice President, the initial extension will enable the CBN to further circulate the new currency notes among banks so that people can have easy access.

Atiku said: “Within these ten days, I urge the CBN to initiate measures that will alleviate the problems being encountered by the people in exchanging their old naira notes for new ones and getting more new notes into circulation.” The CBN may have to consider printing more currency notes to eliminate the current scarcity among ordinary people, especially rural dwellers who need them for their daily transactions.

“If the CBN thinks its officials and banks must operate at the weekend in order to address the needs of the ordinary people and rural dwellers, it may have to consider this option, after all the amount these people require is not huge. The essential element here is ensuring that the new currency goes around and is well distributed to the points where people can easily access them. Every good policy must be people-centred and must not bring an avoidable difficulty to the people.

“However, the CBN should be wary of the elite whose motive for crying out about more postponement of the deadline for the tenure of the old naira notes is sinister and far from being altruistic. I am totally in support of building a cashless economy and reducing the amount of cash in our economy.

“The cashless policy and reduction of the cash in circulation has many advantages and every patriotic Nigerian should support the CBN on this. It will help to reduce the flow of illicit funds in our economy. It will help to defeat the funding of terrorism and deter the circulation of drug money in our economy. It will help our fight against corruption.

“More importantly, a cashless economy will help to save and grow our democracy. Those who have devised several means of buying votes in the coming elections and using money to corrupt the electoral system as well as destroying the principle of one man, one vote and the goal of a credible, peaceful, free, and fair poll are the ones shouting against the cashless policy and naira redesign.

“The anti-democratic elements who are pretending to be democrats are the ones ganging up against the CBN because of the currency redesigning and the cashless regime it seeks to enthrone. They have been scheming and lobbying day and night to frustrate the policy. Now, their new measure is to lobby for a second postponement of the deadline for the change of currency. I urge the CBN and the government to ignore their antics. The CBN should not succumb to the current pressure.

“There should be no further postponement of the new naira regime after the expiration of the February 10 deadline. The vote riggers are seeking to push the CBN to extend till after the election when they would have achieved their evil plots. The CBN and the Presidency should be steadfast. The merits of the new naira policy far outweigh the little inconvenience we are experiencing.”

The PDP presidential candidate noted that this is one policy that will benefit the country in the long term, warning that selfish, parochial people with narrow vision should not be allowed to derail it.