No fewer than 14 out of the 18 registered political parties have raised the alarm that opponents of the Naira swap policy will allegedly unleash mayhem in the country from Thursday this week in order to compel the postponement of the 2023 elections.
The political parties also threatened to withdraw all participation from the 2023 general election if the Federal Government and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) succumb to pressure and cancel or suspend the cash withdrawal limit and Naira redesign policies.
This position was made known on Monday at a joint world press conference by the Forum of Chairmen of Nigerian Political Parties and Forum of Candidates for the 2023 General Election.
The candidates forum comprised contestants for Presidential, National Assembly, Governorship and House of Assembly seats in the forthcoming 2023 elections.
In the text read by the Spokesperson of the Forum, Chief Barr. Kenneth Udeze, who is the National Chairman of Action Alliance (AA) and flanked by other national chairmen of political parties, presidential, governorship, senatorial and House of Representatives as well as House of Assembly candidates, declared that: “We hereby announce our resolution that at least 14 of the 18 political parties in Nigeria will not be interested in the 2023 general election and indeed we shall withdraw all our participation from the electoral process if these currency policies are suspended or cancelled or if the deadline is further shifted.”
The Forum stated that the policy will enhance the credibility of the 2023 election “In fact if these policies are implemented fully and without shifting the deadline of 10th February, 2023 date, President Muhammadu Buhari would have taken a very huge step closer to fulfilling his promise to the world that the 2023 general election would be credible, free and fair.”
Continuing, Chief Udeze raised the alarm saying, “We have intercepted very credible intelligence of a well-financed plot to instigate violent disturbances, incite and provoke civil unrest aimed at undermining the President and causing a shift in the election date or causing his administration to come to an abrupt end.
“We were approached to lend our support, generous promises were made but we believe that Nigeria comes first before any other mundane consideration.
“These evil plans are targeted at coinciding the disturbances with the 7 day grace Mr. President asked Nigerians to grant him to solve the problem of the Naira crunch.”
The political parties and the candidates thereafter passed a resounding vote of confidence on the two CBN policies and commended President Buhari for his rare courage in taking the tough decisions for the good the people.
The group called on bank CEOs to do what is right and not abuse their offices to bring hardship to the people.
“We are warning bank managers, because we have our eyes on them, let what happened before not happen again where CBN delivered the new notes to them and many of them delivered it to the warehouses of some politicians while some began to trade on it following the artificial scarcity which they caused.
“POS operators who are mostly agents of the banks cannot get money from the banks. ATM machines are not working, Bank online applications are not now working yet CBN delivered enough cash to these banks,” they stated.
