The Coalition of Northern Groups has lamented that the response of the Federal Government to the Supreme Court order on the naira swap was deceitful.
CNG’s Spokesperson, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, in a statement on Thursday, said it was curious that days after President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive, people still find it difficult to access cash.
“Instead, the situation is worsening by the day, as both the old and new notes are deliberately withheld by the government.
“And while innocent families go hungry, businesses crumble and tension mounting while Buhari and his lackey, the Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele appears to be in isolation or living in total denial.
“By now, everyone is aware that Buhari only deceived the nation by faking a directive to the CBN to respect the judgment of the Supreme Court knowing full well he did not mean it to be carried out.
“Emefiele, Buhari’s errand too, pretended he was obeying the directive only to further press the cash squeeze upon citizens,” he said.
Suleiman wondered why neither Buhari nor Emefiele had found it helpful to address the nation on the new directive the way they did when they were imposing what he called an “inhuman, draconian policy” on the nation.
“Instead both Buhari and Emefiele, only made clumsy, scanty ambiguous statements through their spokespersons as though the matter is not serious enough.
“At this point, it has become obvious that Buhari is using Emefiele. Buhari in a sinister scheme to revisit the nation, his harsh, ill-conceived, autocratic 1984 currency review that created untold mass suffering and widespread frustration and the death of several Nigerians.
“The insincerity in Buhari’s pronouncements is further confirmed by the fact that since they were made, investigation by the CNG across Northern Nigerian states have shown that since the deceptive directive was given; the deposit money banks have neither been reimbursed with neither the old nor the new notes.
“This explains why the banks resort to issuing less than five thousand naira to customers with a legitimate need for their own money as against the Supreme Court order that no president or any officer in government has the right to deny citizens access to their own money.
“Sadly, Buhari has in the last lap of his tenure chosen the path of dishonour, and aristocracy and is bound to leave behind a very bad legacy to the nation.
“In the process, Buhari and Emefiele have not only scandalized the vital national institutions such as the CBN but also ridiculed the country’s judicial system which we hold unacceptable, unwarranted and ignoble.
“We call on the National Assembly to move quickly to rescue the CBN, the image of the Courts and the nation generally from imminent decay and slip into decadence by checkmating the dictatorial tendencies unfolding in the nation.
“We also call on the patriotic state governors who initiated the legal process and the ungodly regime of monetary policies, to intensify efforts to save the nation, its financial institutions and judiciary.
“In this regard, we suggest they meet with the President-elect and fashion out a way out in order to halt the current national drift toward greater conflict.
“We urge all Nigerians to remain vigilant as to the direction our country is headed and to rise and speak up against these unwarranted, unforgivable injustices.
“We call the attention of the international community to note that responsibility should ultimately lie in Buhari and Emefiele in the event of any rapture in the system as a result of their deceptive, insincere handling of the issue of these murderous economic policies,” he said.
