** Sack him now, APC charges Buhari
** APC a house divided among itself, says PDP
Last Wednesday’s Supreme Court order rejecting the February 10 deadline by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to end the circulation of old 200, 500 and 1000 naira denomination has pitched the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and major opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) over the call for the sack of the CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele
Leveraging on the call for the nation’s apex bank boss to resign, the Director of Media and Publicity for the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council, Bayo Onanuga, described Emefiele as enemy of the Nigerian public and should no longer be allowed to remain in office following the uproar that trailed his controversial Naira swap policy.
But the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) rejected the ruling party’s position, describing it is a ploy devised by the Tinubu camp to avoid defeat at the February 25 presidential election.
The APC presidential Campaign Council’s position came barely 24 hours after the Supreme Court interim order, stopping the February 10 end of the old naira
According to the APC PCC media director, “This is not the first time in the world that a currency is being changed. Why is it different in our country? What this has so far revealed is that we have an incompetent CBN governor. In fact, in a normal country, the man ought to have been sacked for making our people pass through hard times.
“People are being made to pay excessive charges to POS operators. That’s why I said it is all about the Nigerian people. How can somebody sit somewhere and conceive a programme that, rather than bring people relief, is bringing them pain? It is a satanic policy.
“The problem is not about the APC candidate. It is all about the Nigerian people. We are more concerned about the pain and anguish our people are being made to suffer. The currency swap is a CBN policy and we are happy that the president has also intervened. Apparently, he was not given the full details about the change and its implications.
“Emefiele claimed his policy will bring down inflation and strengthen the Naira. Has it done that? The dollar was about N720 some weeks ago, it is now N750. This CBN governor, in my view, should have been sacked. This is the first time in history we are having this gap between official and parallel rate. What the CBN governor is doing, we don’t know whose agenda he is implementing, is totally against the Nigerian people.
“As we are talking, Britain is also changing currency. They are phasing out the queen from the currency and replacing it with that of the king. It is not causing the people any difficulty. It is being done seamlessly.”
While rejecting the APC position, the PDP Presidential Campaign Council described the ruling APC as a house divided against itself.
Spokesman of the PDP campaign council and Delta State Commissioner for Information, Charles Aniagwu, said the infighting among the ruling party has singled it out as a party that is not ready for the elections which he noted that Nigerians are eagerly waiting to participate in.
He said, “APC has become a bad workman that keeps quarreling with his tools. Emefiele is a member of the APC. Why are they fighting themselves? They have fought to the extent of declaring the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd) as another opponent in this election.
“In our case, they say they are happy that Peter OBI will reduce the votes of PDP. That tells you that they are not campaigning on their strength. They said they are happy that there is G-5 crisis. If you are campaigning on your strength, it won’t concern you whether your opponent has any challenge or not. They are trying to hold on to straws and the more they hold on to straws, the more they fall like a pack of cards.”
On how the party received the ruling of the Supreme Court on Wednesday stopping the apex bank from phasing out the 200, 500 and 1,000 notes with effect from February 10, Aniagwu said the PDP was a law-abiding party and would not disparage the court or the Justices over the matter.
“The Supreme Court is the highest court in the land. As a party, we respect the judiciary and we cannot begin to cast aspersions on the judges. We believe the Central Bank knows what is supposed to do to ensure that the policy work in the interest of all Nigerians,” he added.