An old video of former president Muhammadu Buhari’s thoughts on the redesigned naira notes has surfaced on the internet amid fresh claims by private investigator, Jim Obaze.
Obaze was hired by President Bola Tinubu to investigate alleged corruption under the embattled former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Godwin Emefiele.
According to the final report by Obaze’s team, Emefiele opened and operated over 500 foreign accounts during his time as CBN governor.
Obaze’s panel further said Buhari did not approve the naira redesign — his nephew, Tunde Sabiu, did.
The report stated that it was Sabiu who first told Emefiele in September 2022 to consider the redesign of the naira.
Documents show that on October 6, 2022, Emefiele wrote to Buhari that he wanted to redesign and reconfigure N1000, N500 and N200 notes.
“The former President [Buhari] tagged along but did not approve the redesign as required by law. Buhari merely approved that the currency be printed in Nigeria. The redesign was only mentioned to the board of the CBN on December 15, 2022, after Emefiele had awarded the contract to the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Plc on October 31, 2022,’’ the documents noted.
Politics Nigeria recalls that shortly after Emefiele announced the currency redesign, then minister of finance and national planning, Zainab Ahmed, alleged that her office was not consulted before the decision to change the N200, N500 and N1,000 naira notes.
Responding to the minister’s statement, Buhari said the CBN had his support to redesign the naira notes.
Buhari told journalists in the UK that enough time had been given by the CBN for Nigerians to deposit the old naira notes in banks in exchange for the newly redesigned ones which will be issued by December 15, 2022.
“On this change of currency, there will be a lot of money but time has been given from October to December. Three months is enough for whatever money you have to get it changed through the legal system. So, I don’t know why people are complaining about it,” Buhari said.
Declaring his full support for the naira redesign, the president said “there’s no going back.”
Watch the video below:
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