Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the candidate for the All Progressives Congress (APC), and Atiku Abubakar, the candidate for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), have again taken the gloves off in their battle over the naira redesign policy with the presidential election scheduled for February 25 only 21 days away.
Atiku was criticised by Tinubu yesterday, who claimed that the present sabotage of the naira notes swap and the fuel crisis, which have made life extremely difficult for millions of Nigerians nationwide, have shown the PDP presidential candidate's true nature as Nigeria's top enemy.
However, Atiku swiftly retorted, claiming that Tinubu and Kaduna State Governor Nasir el-Rufai was concerned about the proposal to change the currency because it would interfere with their plan to purchase votes in the general election of 2023.
In a statement from the presidential campaign council, Tinubu poked fun at Atiku by claiming that anyone who lived in Nigeria rather than Dubai and visited banks and ATMs would be saddened by the CBN's naira swap policy, which is causing hardship for Nigerians.
The message was issued by Bayo Onanuga, the APC campaign team's director of media and publicity. "Nigerians will recall that since the Central Bank introduced its current cash limit and new naira notes swap policies, Atiku Abubakar and the PDP have maintained opportunistic silence in the hope that they will profit from the unease the policies will cause for Nigerians and the resentment they will generate for the ruling APC," the statement read.
“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 the antics of these evil doers has most negatively impacted.
“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 that the bank’s latest move to allow payments of up to N20,000 at the counter was like sending in the fire brigade. He said this move is “far from offering relief as queues are still long, agony and frustrations widening, an invitation to riots.”
But Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate for the PDP, said that Tinubu and the governor of Kaduna State, Nasir el-Rufai, were upset about the policy to change the currency because it would get in the way of their plan to buy votes in the election.
In a statement released by his special assistant on public communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku said that even though the fuel crisis had been going on for months, Tinubu, el-Rufai, and other APC members had waited until now to say they disagreed with policies started by their party.
He also said that the APC made the current situation in the country and that it would be foolish for the governor of Kaduna State or anyone else to blame Atiku for it.
Shaibu also said that el-Rufai’s comments about the crisis caused by the lack of money in the whole country were a low point in the self-proclaimed accidental “servant governor’s” reputation.
He also said that when most Nigerians were groaning under the weight of the currency crunch, it was shameful that the governor of Kaduna State would instead get into a political fight over the issue than help the people.
“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 political party. Perhaps, it is because, for them, self-interest in an election season is more important than the 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.