With just about 21 days to the presidential election billed for February 25, the gloves are again definitely off for the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) counterpart, Atiku Abubakar, in the ongoing wrangle over the naira redesign policy.
Tinubu yesterday dragged Atiku, saying the current sabotage of the naira notes swap and fuel scarcity that have caused untold hardship to millions of Nigerians across the country has revealed the true character of the PDP presidential candidate as public enemy number one of Nigeria.
But Atiku fired back almost immediately, saying Tinubu and the Kaduna State governor, Nasir el-Rufai, were crying foul over the currency change policy because it would frustrate their plan to buy votes in the 2023 general election.
Tinubu, in a statement by presidential campaign council, taunted Atiku, saying anyone who lives in Nigeria and not Dubai and visits banks and ATM locations would feel sad that the CBN is making Nigerians to suffer for its naira swap policy.
The statement signed by director of media and publicity of the APC campaign team, Bayo Onanuga, noted: “Nigerians will recall that since the Central Bank introduced its current cash-limit and new Naira notes swap policies, Atiku Abubakar and PDP maintained opportunistic silence with the hope they will benefit from the discomfort the policies will create for Nigerians and the resentment they will generate for the ruling APC.
“While Atiku and PDP were in bed with the saboteurs and fifth columnists among the operators of Money Deposit Banks and oil marketers who created the current logjam to force the outcome of the February 25 Presidential election in favour of the former Vice President, our candidate Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu courageously pitched his tent with the poor masses who have been most negatively impacted by the antics of these evil doers.
“Having realised they have lost the initiative and their antics exposed to Nigerians by Asiwaju Tinubu at the APC presidential campaign rally in Abeokuta, Atiku made a half-hearted appeal to CBN to ‘slightly’ extend the deadline for the currency swap.
“We are currently at a loss to understand what informed the current call of Atiku on CBN not to extend the February 10 deadline despite the unmitigated hardship still being faced by many Nigerians who could not meet their basic daily needs as a result of lack of cash from banks and the empty ATM machines.”
Tinubu said it was a fire brigade approach for the bank’s latest approach in approving payment of N20,000 at the counter, pointing out that such move is “far from offering relief as queues are still long, agony and frustrations widening, an invitation to riots.
But the presidential candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar, said Tinubu and the Kaduna State governor Nasir el-Rufai were crying foul over the currency change policy because it would frustrate their plan to buy votes in the election.
Atiku, in a statement by his special assistant on public communication Phrank Shaibu, said while the fuel crisis had lasted for months, Tinubu, el-Rufai and other APC members waited this long before they found it contingent to speak in disapproval of policies initiated by their own political party.
He added that the current situation in the country is a mess created by the APC and it wouldl be imprudent of the Kaduna State governor or anyone else to associate Atiku with the crisis.
Shaibu added that the remarks credited to el-Rufai concerning the crisis arising from the currency scarcity across the country came across as a low point in the profile of the self-acclaimed accidental “servant governor”.
He added that at a point when the masses of Nigeria were groaning under the weight of the currency crunch, it remains inglorious that the Kaduna State governor would, rather than sympathize with the masses, prefer to go on political entanglement over the issue.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the currency crisis (and indeed all other crises), as it stands today, is a mess created by the APC and it will be imprudent of the Kaduna State governor or anyone else to associate the PDP or its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar with the crisis.
“It is curious why Governor el-Rufai and other elements of his ilk in the APC had to wait this long before they found it contingent to speak in disapproval of policies initiated by their own political party. Perhaps, it is because for them, self-interest in an election season is more important than public interest.
“As a matter of fact, the lingering fuel scarcity and, indeed, the currency crisis of which el-Rufai so bitterly complained about did not just start today. In major cities across the country, Nigerians have been contending with the problem of fuel scarcity for almost two years in some places like the Federal Capital Territory, while el-Rufai and others crying foul in the APC turned blind eyes to the plight of Nigerians,” he said.
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