By Matthew Tabe
The Concerned Northern Forum (CNF) has given President Muhammadu Buhari a 7-day ultimatum to sack the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Dr. Godwin Emefiele and his team, following controversies surrounding the redesigning of Naira notes.
CNF made the demand while addressing newsmen at the Arewa House on Thursday in Kaduna.
The group threatened massive protests across the country’s northern region and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) should the president fail to carry out the directive.
The spokesperson of the Forum, Comrade Abdulsalam Mohammed Kazeem, said the redesigning of the Naira bills will not improve the lives of people except inflict hardship, which the vast majority of their people are already at the receiving end of.
He stressed that the prices of foodstuff and other daily items used and consumed by their people have increased beyond control; and the probability of the increase in crime rate is high, due to the bad financial policies of the apex bank.
He said, “We must state categorically that the large population of Nigerians have lost confidence in the current leadership of the CBN to initiate and introduce policies that will improve the economy of our dear nation, and so therefore we maintain our earlier position which includes the following:
“The immediate suspension of the whole process of the new Naira redesign, the immediate sack of Mr Godwin Emefiele and his entire team for failing Nigerians haven been the longest serving governor in recent times, prosecution of those behind this devilish and wicked agenda.
“Failure to meet up with our demands within the next seven (7) working days, will lead to massive protests across our region and the federal capital territory.
“The redesigning of the three (3) denominations of the Naira notes by the Central Bank of Nigeria owing to the reason that the banks are not in possession of as much as 80% of the amount in circulation is not only a joke but a total rejection of the realities of the many failed policies of the CBN.
“It is in fact impossible to find all monies in a country in the bank at a particular time because of the distance of banks and the peculiarities of every business and people.
“There is also no law against saving and keeping one’s money and transacting business outside the purview of the banks. Banks have always been perceived by our people as the creation of the elite used to run businesses and make profits from the savings of the ordinary masses.
“The redesigning of the Naira bills will bring nothing good, neither will it improve the lives of our people and region except hardship which the vast majority of our people are already witnessing; the prices of food and other daily items used and consumed by our people have increased beyond control and the probability of the increase in crime rate is high due to the bad financial policy of the apex bank.
“The insistence of Emefiele on the redesigning without recourse to its resultant negative effects is our concern.”