PUNCH
The Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Ado Doguwa, on Thursday in Abuja, said the new naira policy is putting the governing party, All Progressives Congress, at a disadvantage in the coming elections.
Doguwa, who chairs the Special Adhoc Committee on the Naira Redesign, Cashless Policy and Naira Swap in the lower chamber of the national assembly, revealed this after he led members of the committee to meet the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja.
The meeting came hours after the President, in a televised message on Thursday morning, announced that only the old N200 notes would remain legal tender until April 10, 2023.
However, the Ad-hoc committee expressed dissatisfaction saying, “It is not yet Uhuru.”
Concerned about the implementation of the President’s directive, Doguwa said the committee expects the CBN to act immediately.
He also warned that it will perform its oversight functions to ensure full compliance and will, where necessary, invoke its legislative powers.
According to him, “We came to say to Mr. President that despite his broadcast this morning, in spite of the fact that he has told the CBN to make some amendments to take some new steps to ameliorate the hardship, it is not yet Uhuru.
“For instance, the Central Bank has been directed to make money available. But how do we ensure that Mr. President’s directive is being carried out? That cannot be guaranteed.
“Mr. President addressed us and addressed the CBN governor once again to our face and we used the opportunity to also tell the CBN governor that ‘you must go around to implement the directive of the President as contained in the letters of his speech.”
He cautioned the CBN and other relevant agencies against defaulting on the directive as the legislature will not spare its constitutional powers to impose penalties.
“Of course, while we are discharging our constitutional right to oversight every institution of government, we must ensure that the directive of Mr. President is carried out to the letter.
“Failure to do that, we must involve every instrumentality of the law, legislative instrumentality, to ensure that Presidential orders are being abided by and ensure that the laws of the land are also being respected.”
