Governor Godwin Obaseki on Wednesday described the proposed plan by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to redesign naira notes as political, alleging that the move was a ploy by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to sway voters ahead of the 2023 general election.
The governor said the redesign of the nation’s currency shouldn’t be a priority as the majority of citizens are suffering from hunger, poverty and economic hardship.
According to him, “I am an economist and I can tell you categorically that this policy by the CBN and Federal Government has no basis in Nigeria’s economy. There is no reason to do this; the move is purely political as there is no urgency in changing our currency.
“They say we should all bring our naira and give it to them because they want to change it for us. Is that our priority now? Does changing of currency reduce the price of food in the market? They say they want to change our currency and dollars are going higher every day. We can’t even see dollars again.
“The urgency is on how to get food for our citizens to remove starvation and hunger from the land. The urgency is on how to maintain discipline in our monetary policy so that we can manage our foreign exchange rate because we are import dependent.”
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Obaseki, while inaugurating the Edo State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Women Campaign Council at the presidential campaign secretariat in Benin City, said the 2023 general election is for the continuous existence of Nigeria and urged the citizenry to vote out APC so that the nation will not fail.
“We can’t allow those managing our country to continue because if we allow the APC government to continue, the country will fail as the country is already failing. God sees how people are suffering in this country and will not allow them to manage Nigeria again.
“Our party, the PDP is organic and our candidate, Atiku Abubakar, is the best amongst all. The party has the structure to win the election next year.
“APC has stolen our money and wants to use it to impose themselves on Nigerians come 2023 general election. They have stocked up a lot and want to bring the money. Don’t be afraid, collect the money and vote them out like you did in Edo in the 2020 governorship election,” he said.
Betsy Obaseki, the chairperson of the women campaign council, on her part, said, “APC is still imposing more suffering on the people of the nation. The existence of the nation is threatened and Nigerians should not sit down and watch but come out enmasse to vote out APC.”
