Festus Keyamo, the minister of state for labor and employment, has commended the APC-backed governors for taking the President Muhammadu Buhari administration to the Supreme Court over the contentious naira redesign scheme.
Kaduna, Kogi, and Zamfara, three APC-led governments, had filed legal complaints against the Buhari administration, requesting that the deadline for the usage of old naira notes be extended.
As the case was set for hearing last Wednesday, more APC states and one state with a PDP-led administration wanted to join the legal action against the federal government.
In an interview with NAN, Keyamo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, stated that the disagreement between the APC governors and Buhari shows the party is practicing true federalism.
He stated that the governors oppose Buhari because they are fighting for the masses.
The lawyer said: “Every single governor that has gone to court fighting for the masses, fighting for the people to get succour, they are all APC governors.”
Keyamo, who is also the spokesperson for the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), said the decision of the APC governors to tackle the present administration showed that the party’s presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, if elected on 25 February as president, would ensure true federalism in the country.
The Minister stated that the trend of governors taking the federal government to court was started by Tinubu when he was governor of Lagos State between 1999 and 2007.
Keyamo said: “People are calling for true federalism. What you are seeing in display is true federalism.
“They should support APC because APC is now displaying the character of true federation where the component parts can disagree with the federal government.
“Don’t forget that it was Tinubu that started it long ago when he was governor he was always taking the federal government to court on every issue to tell you that the component parts of the country can disagree with the federal government.
“We are not going to sell off Nigerians because of party politics. That is what the governors have shown the world that we are not prepared to sell you out because of loyalty to the centre.”
According to the senior lawyer, Buhari is not to be blamed for the crisis resulting from the cash swap policy.
“It is those who don’t mean well in the implementation, whereas President Muhammadu Buhari means very well,” he said.
“You know the president is the anti-corruption champion of Africa. What he is doing is a clear indication that he is holding fair to his principle till the last day.”