Naira Crisis: Tinubu Campaign Brands Malami ‘Public Enemy’

The Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami is among the enemies of Nigerians, Bayo Onanuga, the director of the Media, APC Presidential Campaign Council, has said.

Reacting to the suit filed by Malami on Wednesday objecting to the Supreme Court decision to put the February 10, deadline set for the demonetization of old naira notes by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN on hold, Onanuga in a tweet said “Abubakar Malami is also a public enemy like Emefiele.”

The decision of the Godwin Emefiele-led CBN to introduce the new naira notes has imposed untold hardship on Nigerians as the scarcity of old and new banknotes spread across the country.

Commercial bank in the country have responded to the crisis by closing many of their branches, amidst protest in some parts of the country to force the federal government to stop the policy.

Recall that Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the APC presidential candidate has accused Emefiele of trying to stop the election from holding.

Governor Ele Rufai of Kaduna state has also accused some fifth columnist in the Presidency of trying to truncate the forthcoming election.

In response,  El Rufai, Governors Bello Matawale of Zamfara, and Yahaya Bello of Kogi had on Tuesday filed a suit at the apex court asking it to stop the CBN from demonetizing the old naira notes by Friday this week on the grounds that the policy has inflicted pains  on Nigerians.

But, Malami in his preliminary objection asked the Supreme court to set aside the ruling on the basis that the issues raised by the governors were faulty.

He said, “The claims or reliefs are not against the federation, but the Federal Government and its Agency, the Central Bank of Nigeria.

“The Federal Government of Nigeria is distinct from the Federation or the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The Plaintiffs have no grievance whatsoever against the Federation of Nigeria.

“This suit has disclosed no dispute that invokes this (Supreme) Court’s original jurisdiction as constitutionally defined.”

The nation’s apex court ruled on a suit filed by three state governments, Kaduna, Kogi, and Zamfara challenging the CBN to end the legal tender status of the old naira notes of N200, N500, and N1000 by Friday this week.

The ruling has been followed by jubilation across the country, even though some have also described it as a pyrrhic victory for some elements in the ruling APC who insist that the policy was targeted at the party’s Presidential candidate Bola Tinubu who have praised the three governors who championed the suit as the saviors of the country at this difficult time.

Tinubu said after the ruling, “I want to salute the courage of our Governors and most especially the Progressives Governors in APC who acted to save our country from avoidable and dangerous political crises and social unrest which the Central Bank policy on new Naira notes has brought on our country.

“Our country was dangerously careering toward anarchy and political and economic shutdown. But with the Supreme Court interim ruling our country has been pulled back from the precipice. We thank our Supreme Court Justices for ruling wisely on the side of the people who have been subjected to undue agony and pains since this policy was announced.

“The Federal Government and relevant stakeholders can now sit down and work out better framework on how to proceed with the new policy without causing any social and economic disruption and inconvenience to our people. We have examples of other countries that have successfully and seamlessly changed their currencies to learn from.”

Meanwhile, not a few watching the ruling party insist that Tinubu’s men will not stop attacking those in Buhari’s government opposed to him wining the February 25 presidential election.