Former President Muhammadu Buhari has denied the claim that his administration “deliberately” used the naira redesign policy to punish Nigerians.
He stated that rather, the policy helped to ease the 2023 general elections, thereby making it “cleaner.”
This was disclosed in a memoir titled ‘Working with Buhari: Reflections of a Special Adviser, Media and Publicity (2015 – 2023),’ written by Buhari’s former Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, and presented in Abuja on Tuesday.
The naira redesign policy was formulated and implemented under the leadership of the erstwhile governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, in October 2022.
As contained in the 12th chapter of the memoir, Buhari faulted claims that the scarcity of the naira notes was targeted at Nigerians, but rather, “it was people who had too much money that had problems with it.”
The former president noted, “There is no denying that the naira redesign policy gave us cleaner elections.
“The scarcity of money was not deliberately done to punish Nigerians. Democracy allows people to express their will, and we did not attempt to control them. People understood the implications of their choices, and we did not force them.”
The ex-military leader noted the effect of the redesign policy, among others, on the 2023 presidential poll in which his party – the ruling All Progressives Congress lost in his native Katsina State.
“My state, Katsina, showed the beauty of the whole system. In the presidential poll, APC lost, but they came back to win the governorship. Maybe they took things for granted earlier because it was my state, and they thought they would win easily. People do not like being taken for granted,” the memoir read.
