Senator Ben Murray-Bruce has raised the alarm over the safety of the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, who he says is allegedly being targeted by those he described as desperate politicians.
Though President Muhammadu Buhari has come out severally to stoutly defend his government’s Naira redesign policy, and has not hidden his desire to use it to stop politicians from engaging in vote-buying and hiring of thugs, Emefiele has come under intense fire for being the ‘architect’ of the policy.
Emefiele has come under strong criticism from many top politicians who are against his Naira redesign policy. The politicians also alleged that the Naira redesign policy was ‘sold’ to the president in order to allegedly ruin their chances of winning the elections.
Malam Nasir el-Rufai has however been consistent that the policy is the brain-child of President Muhammadu Buhari and led the governors of Kogi and Nassarawa states to challenge the federal government to extend the deadline for currency swap.
However, in a post shared on Twitter, Ben Murray-Bruce declared that Emefiele is “God-sent” and that for the first time, vote-buying will be eliminated in Nigeria’s elections
He said: “Godwin Emefiele is a God sent to this nation. For the first time ever, vote buying will be almost eliminated. In a country with 130 million multidimensionally poor people, this is a giant step for democracy”.
“I urge all patriotic Nigerians to pray for his safety as he is targeted by desperate politicians”.
BRANDPOWER reports that following the redesigning of N200, N500 and N1000 notes by the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN), Jan. 31 was announced as deadline for use of the old notes.
The Jan. 31 deadline was, however, met with outrage from Nigerians who could not access the new notes, forcing the apex bank to extend the deadline to Feb. 10 after which the notes would seize to be legal tender.
CBN has since accused privileged Nigerians of hoarding the naira to create the current state of affairs.
Meanwhile, governors of Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara approached the Supreme Court on Feb. 3, requesting that the extention should be beyond Feb. 10 as announced by the CBN.
Following the suit, a seven-member panel of the apex court, led by John Okoro gave the order suspending the Feb. 10 deadline till Feb. 15, when the suit would be determined.
