El-Rufai slams Emefiele over Naira redesign after Supreme Court judgement

Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State on Friday slammed the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, over hasty implementation of the naira redesign policy, accusing the CBN Governor of working to assist the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) win the 2023 general elections.

After the Supreme Court of Nigeria, in its judgement on Friday annulled the Federal Government’s naira redesign policy, declaring it an attack on the 1999 Constitution, and directing that old N200, N500, and N1,000 notes remain legal tender till December 31, 2023, Governor El-Rufai in a media interaction, stated that “Emefiele was appointed Central Bank Governor by the PDP originally. So, let’s not forget where he came from.”

Governor El-Rufai, who was in court with other All Progressives Congress (APC) governors who filed the suit, Governors Yahaya Bello of Kogi State and Bello Matawalle of Zamfara State, when judgement was delivered, emphasised that Emefiele deceived President Muhammadu Buhari on the implementation of the Naira redesign policy.

According to El-Rufai, “He is the one that rolled out this policy together to help the PDP win the 2023 general elections and deceived the President into thinking that it is possible to withdraw N2 trillion from circulation and reprint everything in three months. No country in world history has done it.”

The suit was initially instituted by three APC states – Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara, they were later joined by 13 other states, including of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The 16 states has approached the Supreme Court to nullify the Naira redesign policy, citing that the policy is inflicting hardships on innocent Nigerians.

El-Rufai had declared after the judgement: “He deceived the President; he gave the President wrong information and the Attorney General, unfortunately, we have to claim that, that one is from our party, supported this policy. And we know why. “Go and look at the antecedents. These are people who want to run for President or governor in our party and didn’t make it. This is their revenge plan.

“Whether the Federal Government obeys the order or not is up to the Federal Government but I know President Muhammadu Buhari very well. He is a man that respects the law.

“Part of the reasons I convinced my colleagues to go to the Supreme Court is that we are among the closest governors to the President and we wanted to show him that if those closest to him disagree with him so publicly on a matter, then, you need to reflect on it.

“President Muhammadu Buhari is a man that obeys the law. He may have been misguided by his advisers but now that the Supreme Court has spoken unequivocally, I am confident that all the orders have been complied with.”