Stick to February 10 Deadline, Shehu Sani Tells Fed Govt

•Insist some governors stashed old notes for vote-buying

Alex Enumah in Abuja

Social critic and former Kaduna State Senator, Shehu Sani, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari not to bow to pressure to allow the use of the old naira notes to circulate side by side the new ones before the February 25 general election.

Sani argued that allowing the old notes to run till February 25 or beyond, would be detrimental to the forthcoming general election and the nation’s democracy.

According to him, while Buhari was striving to usher in a political order, “where money would not influence, decide and shape the thinking of people,” some politicians were vehemently opposed to it.

Speaking on a programme monitored on Channels Television, the former Senator claimed that most governors especially those from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) were against the demonitisation policy of the federal government because they had stashed huge funds in the old naira notes for prosecution of the 2023 general election.

Reacting to the position of some state governments which has been against the policy, Sani noted that if the federal government decided to use the old naira notes after the elections the said governors, “will still not agree because they want to use the old naira notes to buy votes.”

He condemned the governors for using the ordinary Nigerians to fight their cause, just as he berated them for  not raising their voices against acts of terrorism and banditry that had brought more harm on the people.

He said: “The average person in Nigeria in the last seven years has been traumatised, has faced a lot of hardship and you can’t talk to me about the average person because I come from the northern Nigeria, where the average person every day is being killed, kidnapped, their lives are being decimated by terrorist and bandits. How many of these governors have gone to court over matters which affect the lives of the ordinary people.”

He argued further that, had the policy been introduced a year or two ago and people were queuing and suffering, the governors would have simply said: “it’s the policy of our party, everybody should fall in line. So, it is simply about February 25.

“Let’s not make mistake about it, the struggle of this new naira notes is as important as the soul of democracy in Nigeria. If you allow these old notes to be used on or before February 25, forget about credible and transparent elections.

“There is so much poverty in the country today, people will not see money and turn the other way. Money has, for a very long time, influenced the decision of ordinary people because poverty has been so weaponised.

“As far as I am concerned there should be no validation of these new notes until after the election, then that can be done because if you do that now, the election will be so monetised.”

While stating that the ordinary people did not start suffering from the time Emefiele introduced the naira redesign, but have been suffering for the past seven years, he challenged those contesting elective position to sell themselves and their programmes to the people without relying on money.

“If they have enough of new naira notes nobody would have gone to court,” he said, adding that schools were closed for eight months and people being killed every day but all the governors could say is that the government is doing its best.

“At this crucial hour what I will advise the president to do, is simply to stick to the no use of old naira notes. The opposition (parties) are  not doing what they are supposed to do, opposition thought with or without money they will win election because people are suffering.

“A nation that has statistically proven to have 130 million people, poverty has been weaponised, allowing the use of these old naira notes would influence the decision of the people and we can’t be talking of having democracy in Nigeria when leaders buy position, when they buy the presidency, when they buy the governorship position and buy leadership position.

“Leaders that are fit for our country,  that we deserve should be leaders that are competent to take over power in Nigeria,” he said.