Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State has alleged that some elements wanted to use the deadline for the phase out of the new naira notes to sabotage the forthcoming general elections.
The governor made the claim on Thursday during a meeting with bank managers, representatives of the Central Bank of Nigeria, security agencies, and other stakeholders at the Government House in Kano.
In a statement on Friday, the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Abba Anwar, said the meeting was an effort to find a lasting solution to the suffering faced by citizens as a result of a shortage of new naira notes and unending queues in banks.
According to the statement, the governor said the naira redesign policy was a good one but the poor implementation of the policy is a sign of sabotage at destroying democracy and causing confusion all over.
The governor said: “The policy is a good one, but the implementation is poorly executed and ill-timed. The poor implementation is either a display of incapacity and/or as a sign of sabotage.
“Implementation of the policy is our major concern and problem. Not the policy itself. If you want to implement such a policy, there is a need for you to make public enlightenment and engagement with stakeholders before you arrive at the implementation stage.
“If you want to implement any policy as a leader you need to take many things into consideration. People are suffering.
“You cannot successfully implement a policy without proper planning for it. You need strong institutions if you want implement this kind of policy.”
Ganduje stated that his government would continue to fight for the good implementation of the new naira policy, adding that his administration is planning to flood streets with buses that would be moving people free of charge to major destinations in the state.
He added: “Probably the people targeted by the poor implementation of this policy are not even suffering like other citizens. Something must be done to ameliorate this hardship being faced by our people.
“Since we are facing what I now called COVID-23 we are making all preparations towards distributing palliatives again.”
