Cash swap deadline: Northern groups coalition charges FG, CBN to respect court verdict

The Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) has hailed the ruling by the Supreme Court halting the implementation of the February 10 naira swap deadline and warned the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Federal Government to respect the order of the court.

CNG also hailed the Governors of the 36 states for standing on the side of the Nigerian people over the CBN’s new Naira and cashless policies that have subjected the masses to severe pains.

The Group, in a statement by its Spokesperson, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, on Wednesday, lamented that President Muhammadu Buhari, whom Nigerian voters trusted in 2015, should so woefully fail to address the fundamentals of the nation’s existence.

“In 2015, Nigerian voters trusted Buhari to lead our nation through and out of its limitations, into a future in which we will live secure lives and pursue livelihoods in a united Nigeria whose resources will be protected.

“Unfortunately however, with the ill-advised ratification of  a regime of harsh economic policies,  added to a lingering fuel crisis, the current administration has inadvertently acquired the reputation of being the worst in the history of our nation, in terms of any capacity to generate confidence in the minds of even the masses of the people from where it extracted most of its winning votes.

“This is because a handful of dubious elements that surround the President that has turned the administration into a citadel of poor governance, indifference, insensitivity and unprecedented corruption,” the Group said.

“This ruthless cabal along with Godwin Emefiele has in the process dragged the CBN into partisanship and come up with policies that end up making life difficult for the people.”

This policy, CNG noted, is clearly aimed at achieving dubious political goals; and one clearly designed to weaken the northern region especially has created developments and difficult circumstances that no one expected the nation will confront.

“We therefore find it unrealistic and unjustifiable that in the desperation to get even with a certain individual and frustrate his presidential bid, the entire country and its people should be thrown into this level of unforgivable suffering.

“As fallout of the chronic cash scarcity resulting from the rigid implementation of the unpopular currency swap policy, several commercial banks have begun to close shop for fear of unforeseen circumstances.

“Against the failures and abuses by administration officials, hunger is stalking millions of homes, inflation is making life difficult by the day, people are losing jobs, businesses are closing down, young Nigerians are losing hope.

“For us in the North, policing lives and livelihoods of communities is now a major problem. Part of the shared bad legacy of the Buhari administration include the current condition of roads like the Abuja – Kano dual carriage way, the dangerous de-industrialization of the North and the skewed allocation of electric power to various parts of the north  which are today compounded by poorly-designed economic policies.

“We appreciate the caution that the fight against corruption must be isolated from partisan influence, but under no circumstances should it be compromised.”

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