Sowore berates Buhari, says cost of Naira redesign would have been disbursed to settle ASUU

The presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore, on Wednesday berated President Muhammadu Buhari over the redesign of the naira some notes. Sowore, in a media interaction on Channels Television, said that the cost of redesigning the naira notes should have disbursed to settle part of the demands of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

Sowore had purported that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) spent N218 billion to redesign the three denominations of the naira notes, which comprises of N200, N500 and N1,000.

The AAC presidential candidate chided the APC federal government for not addressing the welfare of Nigerians but devoting more attention to naira redesign.

According to Sowore: “These are issues you get from leaders who are concerned about the welfare of the people of the country, not the redesign of the naira which cost us N218 billion. We should have given that money to ASUU.

“The intervention fund will help prevent strikes as well as help improve the state of the nation’s tertiary education sector.”

Sowore kicked against plan to privatise the education sector. He promised free and qualitative education to all Nigerians if elected president in 2023.

He also promised to pay N100,000 per semester to each of the over 1.7 million Nigerian students in tertiary institutions.

Sowore had declared: “They are not running anything well; I will never be part of those who ask the private sector to run. It will be a publicly run education programme.

“We are focusing on free education. Every student in Nigeria who is in higher institution will get at least N100,000 per semester as study grant from the Federal Government.”