The Peoples Democratic Party have kicked against the call made by the All Progressive Congress for the sack of the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, following the uproar that trailed his controversial Naira swap policy.
The party described the call as a ploy devised by the Tinubu camp to avoid defeat at the forthcoming general elections.
Recall that, the Director of Media and Publicity for the APC Presidential Campaign Council, Bayo Onanuga, had called for the sack of Emefiele as a result of the mood of some angry Nigerians who felt the CBN does not deserve to remain in office following the tension the scarcity of the new naira notes and the short deadline had generated in the country.
Onanuga’s call came barely 24 hours before the Supreme Court temporarily halted the move by the Federal Government through the CBN to ban the use of the old naira notes beyond February 10.
He said, “This is not the first time in the world that a currency is being changed. Why is it different in our country? What this has so far revealed is that we have an incompetent CBN governor. In fact, in a normal country, the man ought to have been sacked for making our people pass through hard times. People are being made to pay excessive charges to POS operators. That’s why I said it is all about the Nigerian people. How can somebody sit somewhere and conceive a programme that, rather than bring people relief, is bringing them pain? It is a satanic policy.
“The problem is not about the APC candidate. It is all about the Nigerian people. We are more concerned about the pain and anguish our people are being made to suffer. The currency swap is a CBN policy and we are happy that the president has also intervened. Apparently, he was not given the full details about the change and its implications.
“Emefiele claimed his policy will bring down inflation and strengthen the Naira. Has it done that? The dollar was about N720 some weeks ago, it is now N750. This CBN governor, in my view, should have been sacked. This is the first time in history we are having this gap between official and parallel rate. What the CBN governor is doing, we don’t know whose agenda he is implementing, is totally against the Nigerian people.
“As we are talking, Britain is also changing currency. They are phasing out the queen from the currency and replacing it with that of the king. It is not causing the people any difficulty. It is being done seamlessly.”
The PDP Presidential Campaign Council described the APC as a house divided against itself.
Within Nigeria reported that the spokesman for the PDP campaign council and Delta State Commissioner for Information, Charles Aniagwu, said for fighting one of its own, the ruling party has declared itself not ready for the elections that Nigerians are eagerly waiting to participate in.
He said, “APC has become a bad workman that keeps quarreling with his tools. Emefiele is a member of the APC. Why are they fighting themselves? They have fought to the extent of declaring the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd) as another opponent in this election.
“In our case, they say they are happy that Peter OBI will reduce the votes of PDP. That tells you that they are not campaigning on their strength. They said they are happy that there is G-5 crisis. If you are campaigning on your strength, it won’t concern you whether your opponent has any challenge or not. They are trying to hold on to straws and the more they hold on to straws, the more they fall like a pack of cards.
“The Supreme Court is the highest court in the land. As a party, we respect the judiciary and we cannot begin to cast aspersions on the judges. We believe the Central Bank knows what is supposed to do to ensure that the policy work in the interest of all Nigerians.”
