Buhari, Emefiele, No Longer Important After Presidential Election, Both Will Expire – Oshiomhole

By Gideon Njoku

A former National Chairman of  the All Progressives Congress, APC, Adams Oshiomhole, says that President Muhammadu Buhari will become unimportant after the Presidential Election on Saturday, February 25, 2023.

According to Oshiomhole, Buhari will become irrelevant. In the same irrelevant boat with the President, the former two-time Governor of Edo State told his audience, is the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Godwin Emefiele.

Oshiomhole, the Senatorial Candidate for Edo North, said this while on  campaign at the Jattu Market, Auchi, Edo State.

His utterances stem from the deadline given by the President and the CBN, on the Naira Swap.

The CBN had, in November, 2022, redesigned three denominations of the Nigerian Currency, the Naira. The denominations affected are the N1,000, N500 and N200. It gave January 31, 2023, as the deadline for the swapping of the old Naira Notes with the new. But the new Naira was nowhere available. The CBN and the President were forced to extend the deadline to February 10, 2023, when three APC State Governors – Nasir El-Rufai, Kaduna, Bello Matawalle, Zamfara and Yahaya Bello, Kogi – approached the Supreme Court, and asked that both the old and the new Naira notes be allowed as legal tender, side by side. The FG added a five day grace.

On the 15th, inspite of the subsisting Court order, since the case was adjourned to February 22, 2023, and the outcry of the people, the CBN declared the old notes illegal tender.

Since the crisis and confusion began, Nigerians, especially, the masses, have gone through hell. The scarcity of both the old and new notes dealt with the people. No money. No food. Anger took over, and the people trooped to the streets in anger. A few people lost their lives to the violence, while a few were lost to hunger and the unbearable suffering. A number of banks were torched.

In a broadcast days later, President Buhari asked the CBN to reinject only the old N200 notes into the system.

But that did not help matters. Things got worse, and still is. Most APC Governors and Leaders accused Buhari of deliberately targeting  their Presidential Candidate, Bola Tinubu, with the new Naira Policy. Tinubu had earlier made the same allegation. Buhari wants Tinubu to fail, they argued, otherwise why did the FG embark on the redesign of the Naira now? To complicate matters, there is an extreme scarcity of fuel.

It was the same allegation Oshiomhole made at Jattu market where he declared that Buhari and Emefiele will be irrelevant after February 25. To boot, he told the people that their old Naira notes were still legal tender. He asked them not to throw them away.

Said Oshiomhole who spoke in Pidgin English: “All this wahala wey Buhari put for currency change, my hand no dey inside. Our Party don tell Buhari, wait if you wan change currency, you shouldn’t change am during election. Wetin you no change during your time, you want take am spoil another pesin time. E no good.

“He has to obey the Supreme Court. Supreme Court judgement is superior to the pronouncement of the President. That’s the Nigerian law. I disassociate myself.

“Na dem choose ham. If dey say day wan to change it, make dem give you the new ones. Now, dey wan to remove the old ones, dey no give you the new ones.

“On this matter, President Buhari is on his own. Your Naira will remain valid according to the Supreme Court. Don’t throw away your Naira, keep it.

“By the time you finish voting on Saturday, Emefiele, the Central Bank Governor will expire. Your money will not expire. But the President will expire.”