I Had No Cash To Buy Cooking Gas During Naira Redesign Policy—Femi Adesina

…Says Policy Prevented Nine Governors From Becoming Senators

Femi Adesina who was the Media Adviser to former President Muhammadu Buhari, has said that he suffered from scarcity of cash during the naira redesign policy which was implemented by the Central Bank of Nigeria during the administration of his principal.

Adesina spoke on Wednesday at a programme tagged Media Dialogue with Femi Adesina organised by the Association of Veteran Journalists in Osun State.

The redesigned note was unveiled by ex-President Buhari on November 23, 2022 consisting of N200, N500 and N1,000 bank notes respectively.

The CBN had introduced new N200, N500 and N1,000 notes, with concerns that the newly redesigned denominations were scarce in circulation.

After the CBN announced the naira redesign policy, there had been criticism on the withdrawal of the old N1,000, N500 and N200 notes.

During the implementation of the policy, eleven governors elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) met with Buhari at the State House, Abuja, over th cash crunch and demanded for the concurrent use of the new and old notes till the end of this year.

At the meeting, the President, Prof Ibrahim Gambari, President Buhari rejected the demand of the governors.

Not satisfied with the President’s explanation, three governors of the All Progressives Congress (APC), namely Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna, Yahaya Bello of Kogi and Bello Mutawalle of Zamfara, dragged the CBN to the Supreme Court over the deadline for the expiration of the old Naira notes which was granted.

But Adesina said his principal actually felt some things his administration did, could have been done better.

Adesina, said the naira redesign policy, though exposed Nigerians to hardship was not a bad policy as it enabled the country to have reduction in crime, especially kidnapping and curbed manipulation in the 2023 polls.

He explained that even as Spokesman to the President when the policy was implemented, there were days he went without cash.

He gave an example when he needed to refill his cooking gas cylinder and there was no cash to do so until someone who had cash had to come to his rescue.

Adesina said, “The policy (naira redesign) brought hardship to Nigerians. I had N20,000 which I stretched for almost two weeks. There was a day I had a full house and we wanted to cook breakfast but midway, the gas finished.

“When they came to tell me that the gas has finished, I didn’t know what to do because to fill that big cylinder, I needed N40,000 but I didn’t have it. I was special adviser to the president but I didn’t have the cash. One boy living with me had to bail me out to fill that gas which I refunded.

“So, it was everybody that bore that brunt. You will recall that even during that time, there was no kidnapping. I remember some people went to kidnap an APC chairman or is it secretary in Kano. After holding him for three days and nobody was calling to ask how much they will collect because there was no cash, they just slapped him three times and told him to go.

“Even kidnappers were out of business because there was no naira and do you know that we have a cleaner election because of that policy?

“Nine serving governors couldn’t go to the Senate. They contested but lost. Have you ever seen a governor who will contest an election and will not win? But because there was no money to spread around, they couldn’t win. The policy was not bad in its entirety. There were issues with it but it was not bad in its entirety.”