Fashola praises Tinubu over stands on Naira redesign policy

Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, has praised Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), for his position on the naira redesign policy.

Fashola who spoke during an interview on Channels Television on Monday, said Tinubu stayed true to form as an “activist”.

Speaking further, the minister said the government needs to reflect on the naira redesign policy, considering the hardship faced by Nigerians over the scarcity of new naira notes.

“It is the responsibility of public servants, especially those responsible for those policies, to look back and say ‘do we intend to cause this pain?’ And if the policy is not working, perhaps you have to readjust and ask yourself whether you thought this through,” he said.

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“These policies are not yet delivering the results and it is delivering a lot of inconvenience for a lot of people.

“That is why our candidate was the first to speak out about it even though it is his party that is in government and this is consistent with Asiwaju Tinubu’s position as an activist, the fighter of the downtrodden, and champion of the downtrodden.

“It was after he spoke that the others now found their voices. One of them said ‘don’t extend it’. What is he benefiting from contributing to the pain by saying they should not extend it?

“Because it is clearly having consequences that are not intended. One of the consequences that is unintended is pain and inconvenience.”

Over the past days, Nigerians across the country have been battling with the scarcity of new naira notes — a development that has led to queues at banking halls and automated teller machine (ATM) points.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had given a deadline of January 31 for the use of old naira notes — but it was recently extended to February 10.