The Arewa Youth Assembly is backing the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Godwin Emefiele over the redesign of the naira and the newly-introduced withdrawal limits.
The group made its position known during a press conference in Abuja on Tuesday where it called on Nigerians to support the apex bank chief’s policies which it argued are for the betterment of the country.
“Nigerians are aware that since he was appointed the CBN Governor, he has introduced over 37 interventions to save the economy,” the group’s Publicity Secretary Ali Muhammad said.
“The beauty of it all is that these interventions are not for his benefit but for the benefit of the common man. It is verifiable that President Muhammadu is fulfilling his campaign promises through Mr. Godwin Emefiele policies, which range from a fight against insecurity, agriculture, job creation, and fight against corruption just to mention but a few.”
The comment comes hours after a court ordered the Department of State Services (DSS) to halt a move to arrest Emefiele over terrorism financing and economic sabouteur allegations.
The Arewa Youth Assembly also faulted the attempt to arrest the CBN Governor, describing it as disturbing.
Read the text of the full briefing below…
PRESS TEXT BY AREWA YOUTH ASSEMBLY ON THE NEED FOR NIGERIANS TO SUSTAIN THE NEW CBN POLICIES AND REMAIN FOCUSED, DISREGARD SABOTEURS, AND STAND WITH GODWIN EMEFIELE, THE CBN GOVERNOR, HELD AT BOLINGO XPERIA HOTEL, ABUJA
ON 20TH DECEMBER 2022Gentlemen of the Press!
Fellow Nigerians!permit me to start by stating “that the journey to salvation, has never been free of saboteurs”
As you are all aware, the Central Bank of Nigeria, under the leadership of Mr. Godwin Emefiele recently announced its decision to redesign and distribute some denominations of naira notes. The policy is aimed at; fighting banditry and kidnapping for ransom industry; controlling the amount of money in circulation; fighting inflation and addressing issues of corruption and hoarding of naira notes by individuals.
Following nationwide compliance with the policy, the apex bank announced that over 2 trillion naira notes are now in their vaults.
To forestall the future harboring of naira notes by individuals, the central bank came up with another policy pegging 100,000 and 500,000 as the maximum cash individuals and corporate organizations respectively can withdraw weekly.
This policy will also help to checkmate the incidences of vote buying, which is the greatest threat to fair and credible elections in 2023. As many politicians have stockpiled funds they intend to use for this nefarious purpose.
To ensure that this commendable initiative of the CBN fails, both chambers of the national assembly have openly called for the reversal of the policy or to extend the implementation date. The call failed due to the open endorsement of the policy by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Having lost the fight following the circulation of the redesigned naira notes, the enemies of our country have decided to launch a different fight, with the sole aim of rubbishing the integrity and reputation of the governor of the apex bank. The first phase of the failed battle is being spearheaded by rep Gudaje Kazaure. In his macabre dance, he has been dropping unrealistic figures which he claimed are monies deducted from various transactions as stamp duties.
The presidency swiftly distanced itself from the one-man committee. As no member of the said committee has openly come out to identify with him.
In one of his shows of shame, rep Kazaure granted an interview with Human Rights Radio in their Brekete Family Program, wherein he claimed that once directed the Director General of the Department of State Security Service, to detain Emefiele for 6 hours. If this is true, this is a pointer to the reason why Nigerians are being killed daily, yet, our intelligence team is unable to get timely information to avert the same. As most of them are now in bed with politicians and available for use to tackle their opponents.
While the comic Stamp duty funds scene is waning, the agents of darkness who have vowed to bring Emefiele down and reverse all his impactful policies, have resorted to using security as a convenient gateway to remove him from office and possibly pave the way malleable person to succeed him.
Ordinarily, we wouldn’t have joined issues with our grandfather, the Director General of the DSS who is from our region, we are disturbed that if the claim by Rep Kazaure that he gave him instruction to detain the CBN Governor is true, it means, our father is sharing his loyalty with another person different from President. If he has any iota of patriotism left in him he ought to resign.
Nigerians that are enduring the burden of hardship caused by the doubling of the price of premium motor spirit, got a feeling of relief when the DSS mandated both the NNPC and Oil Marketers to make the product available. Their order has not been complied with. As you all know, everything in Nigeria is dependent on oil, hence, the manipulation of subsidies via artificial scarcity should be seen as the greatest threat to National Security which should be tackled with immediate effect. This is the leading cause of inflation and growing poverty in the country, which when not tackled, can lead to national anger.
Rather than DSS staying true to their order, and ensuring that fuel is made available to Nigerians, their inability to act has made Nigerians lose confidence in them.
This is coupled with the hasty way Tukur Mamu, the Media Aide to Sheikh Gumi was arrested on trump-up charges of link with the terrorists that derailed the Abuja-Kaduna bound trained. They have since withdrawn all charges against him for want of evidenceWe sympathize with service, as there is no way the DG will be recalled from retirement to do the work of energetic men that are less than 60 years. Every day the service keeps manifesting the fatigue that comes with the old age of its head.
Nigerians are aware that since he was appointed the CBN Governor, he has introduced over 37 interventions to save the economy. The beauty of it all is that these interventions are not for his benefit but for the benefit of the common man. It is verifiable that President Muhammadu is fulfilling his campaign promises through Mr. Godwin Emefiele policies, which range from a fight against insecurity, agriculture, job creation, fight against corruption just to mention but a few.
It is on record that most countries in the world are yet to recover from the shock caused by the Covid-19 pandemic which crippled the economy of most countries. The handling of the economy, during and after the pandemic by Mr. Emefiele is legendary. Our economy is fairing much better than that of our neighboring countries.
If Nigerians can’t praise the CBN governor for his effort in sailing our country to a safe port, we shouldn’t accuse him of terrorism. Those who are empowered by law to protect us, are sleeping on duty, while miscreants are declaring seats at home in some states in Nigeria, while bandits are in charge of numerous communities. They collect revenues and adjudicate in some instances.
Arising from the foregoing, we wish to call on:
1) World Bank, Internal Monetary Funds (IMF), African Development, and other development partners to pay special attention to what is happening in the central bank of Nigeria and its
governor, to ensure that his tenure is not truncated on false charges.2) Nigerians to continue to support the CBN Governor and his policies, as they are aimed at fighting corruption, banditry and vote buying, etc.
3) those with looted funds in their houses should find a way of depositing such monies in any commercial bank rather than trying to use a back door approach to knock off the CBN governor and get the policies reversed through their lackey.
4) the judiciary to remain state fast in defending the spirit and letter of our constitution, as they are the last hope of the common man.
5) President Muhammadu Buhari too. urgently sack the DG of DSS to pave way for more energetic Nigerians, to help fight against insecurity
6) Nigerians to ignore Honourable Kazaure and his co-travelers, as he is seen as the official skit maker of the green chambers, whose presence is to entertain his colleagues
Alhaji Ali Muhammad
Publicity Secretary
Arewa Youth Assembly