Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has asked for a review of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s naira swap policy (CBN).
Wike told President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday that the policy does nothing to fight corruption or buy votes, as it was meant to do, but has caused Nigerians a lot of trouble.
During his speech at the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) rally in Okrika Local Government Area (LGA) in the state, Wike reminded Buhari that part of being a leader is not making people’s lives hard.
Remember that the CBN changed the look of the N200, N500, and N1,000 bills in December 2022 and gave Nigerians a deadline to switch over to the new bills.
But because there aren’t enough new notes, Nigerians have been in a lot of pain and trouble.
Remember that the federal government said its goal wasn’t to make life hard for Nigerians but to stop people from buying votes, fight corruption, stop people from keeping illegal money, and fight other bad things.
Wike’s response was that the policy has nothing to do with fighting corruption and is only hurting the people.
The leader of the G-5 asked the President to come up with other ways to fight corruption.
His words were,
“I know how hard it is, Mr. President. But please, since two of us are going at the same time, this policy has nothing to do with trying to fight corruption. It has nothing to do with hating politicians or trying to fight them.
“The policy is meant to hurt the people who chose us to lead them” (sic). It’s not our job to make people suffer. We all know how to fight against corruption and politicians. This one doesn’t make it in at all.”