The National Vice Chairman (North-West) of the All Progressives Congress, Mallam Salihu Lukman, on Friday called for the resignation of the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele and the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami for misleading the president, Major General Muhammadu Buhari to flout the Supreme Court order on the new naira redesign policy.
The development comes hours after the apex court invalidated the CBN policy on the grounds that it was implemented without due consultation, adding that it was also not in line with constitutional provisions.
Consequently, the Supreme Court ruled that the old N200, N500 and N1,000 naira notes should co-exists with the new ones until December 31.
Reacting to the news, Lukman lamented that the sudden implementation of the cash swap policy and tight deadline had brought untold hardship to Nigerians.
The Kaduna politician, therefore, noted that the right thing for public office holders like Emefiele and Malami to do after such public office abuse was to accept their limitations and resign honourably.
In a statement titled “Cashless Policy: Supreme Court Invalidates Actions of the Federal Government”, Lukman expressed delight in the ruling of the Court declaring the FG’s cashless policy as unconstitutional and an utter violation of the fundamental rights of Nigerians.
He said, “It is also unfortunate that President Muhammadu Buhari could be misled into such acts of illegality and abuse of executive powers as pronounced by the Supreme Court. We, and indeed all Nigerians, are grateful to the Supreme Court Justices led by Justice Akomaye for this landmark judicial intervention.
“Given the injurious nature of the consequences of the cashless policy of the Federal Government as was implemented thus far, and the damage of the Supreme Court ruling to the profile of President Buhari, Godwin Emefiele and Abubakar Malami must take personal responsibility for this act of illegality by the Federal Government. In advanced democracies, public officers who commit such acts of illegality voluntarily resign from their appointments.
“Therefore, if indeed, the cashless policy of the Federal Government was supposedly designed to conform with extant legal provisions of the Nigerian Federation, now that it turned out in the direct opposite, both the CBN Governor, Mr. Emefiele and the Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Malami should accept the limitations of both their knowledge of the law and commitment to democracy by resigning from their respective offices forthwith. Rule of law is fundamental to democracy and individuals who flagrantly violate the laws or promote acts that breach the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria must not be tolerated.”
The APC vice chair also saluted the resilience of Governors Nasir El-Rufai (Kaduna), Yahaya Bello (Kogi) and Bello Matawalle (Zamfara) for challenging the Federal Government on behalf of the masses.
He noted that they have shown true heroics through their action alleviating the sufferings of the people.
“On behalf of our party leaders and members from North-West, we salute our three Governors, Mallam Nasir Ahmed El-Rufai, Alh. Yahaya Bello and Alh. Bello Matawalle, respectively of Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara states for their courage and initiative to challenge the action of the Federal Government in the Supreme Court. It is a patriotic duty to challenge the policy of government, which unfortunately plunge Nigerians into hardship and unimaginable shock, notwithstanding partisan affiliations.
“By doing so, our leaders in APC led by Mallam Nasir, Alh. Yahaya Bello and Alh. Matawalle has once again demonstrated superior commitment to democracy. We call on Nigerians to take note of the fact that the crusade against the Federal Government cashless policy was led by APC, not minding the attempt to sensationally politicise it to the benefit of opposition political parties and their candidates in this election season.
“It is gratifying that Nigerians resisted the antics of subversive politicians who wanted to use such crude methods, including inflicting untold hardship and pains on Nigerians to provoke citizens into voting against the APC during the February 25 Presidential and National Assembly elections. We commend and salute Nigerians for their faith in our party, APC and determination to support our party and our candidates during the 2023 elections. We are indeed confident that Nigerians across all the 36 states of the Federation will reaffirm this confidence during the Governorship and States’ Houses of Assembly election on Saturday, March 11,” he stated.
