An emergency meeting on the new Naira notes crisis rocking the All Progressives Congress (APC) has commenced with the party’s presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, the National chairman of the party, Abdullahi Adamu, and the state governors in attendance, discussing possible solutions to end the face-off from the Naira notes redesigning and cashless policy introduced by the APC-led Federal Government.
Some of the governors attending the meeting convened by the chairman, Adamu, to end the face-off were Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai his counterparts from Nasarawa, Abdullahi Sule, Bello Matawalle (Zamfara), Simon Lalong (Plateau), Mai Mala Buni (Yobe) and others.
Also present at the meeting was the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, his Kebbi counterpart, Atiku Bagudu, Jigawa governor, Abubakar Badaru, the Edo state former governor, Adams Oshiomhole, and others.
The meeting on Sunday at the APC national secretariat in Abuja was summoned by Adamu to discuss issues related to the campaign, Naira crisis, and next Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly elections in the country.
In his welcome speech during the opening session, Adamu said, “I am happy with the response so far. And it is my understanding that more of the governors are on their way coming. You will recall the recent development that has necessitated the need for this invitation.
“We do not want to seat in judgement of anybody or bodies with regards to what is going on today in the country as it affects our great party.
“I thought the best to do is to get all those who are holding forth in the critical positions in the party to get together and have some interactions so that we can have a better interpretation and appreciation of the situation that we are in. That is the essence of this invitation.”
The crisis rocking the party started after the governors appealed to President Buhari to postpone the deadline for Naira swap and allow both old and new currency co-circulate, a recommendation that was turned down.
The president’s stance forced the governors to approach the Supreme Court, appealing that the apex court stops Buhari and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) from declaring old N200, N500, and N1,000 notes as illegal tender in the country.
After listening to the governors, the apex court ruled that the Federal Government stop the planned removal of the old notes but the President decided to partially implement the court directives with a 60days extension for N200 note only, declaring N500 and N1,000 as illegal.
