Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has given his previous position on the naira redesign a rethink, stating now, that the Central Bank of Nigeria’s policy is hurting the masses.
In a statement on Sunday the former Vice President urged the CBN to allow commercial banks to accept deposits of the old naira notes; a stance which somewhat is at variance with his position on the subject matter, especially looking at the naira swap deadline set by the APEX bank.
Atiku has over the past weeks backed the currency redesign policy, and was very vocal in his support that the CBN do not extend the February 10 deadline for the demonetization of the old naira notes.
As part of his argument, the PDP flagbearer had said that any further extension would destroy the purpose and objective of the policy.
However, he seemed to have changed his mind on Sunday, stating on social media that “the CBN currency policy is hurting ordinary citizens and those who legitimately earned their money.”
He added that, “The apex bank should, as a matter of urgency, allow commercial banks to join the CBN in the collection of the deposits of old N500 and N1000 notes.
“The new currency should be immediately made available in sufficient quantities to alleviate the suffering of the masses.
“I assure you that when we come to power by the mandate of your votes, the PDP administration will not allow any Nigerian who legitimately earned their money to lose a single kobo of it.
“You can take that promise to the bank because our aim is to create prosperity and not to impoverish our people,” Atiku buttressed his point.