The Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, has disclosed that officials of the federal government reached out to him and some governors on the new naira policy. However, he rejected the offer put forth by the Muhammadu Buhari-led government, he said.Mr El-Rufai said the federal government proposed to allow the circulation of the old N200 notes until 10 April. In return, the governors were to withdraw the suits filed by their states in court.
The governor, in a statement issued by his media aide, Muyiwa Adekeye, on Wednesday, said the report that the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) and the federal government held a meeting in the wee hours of Wednesday ahead of Wednesday’s Supreme Court hearing was false.He said no such meeting happened. Instead, there was a conversation on the phone in which the officials offered a concession to allow old N200 notes to remain in circulation while the governors withdraw the case.He stated that the federal government claimed that the old notes of the higher denominations of N500 and N1,000 are currently being destroyed by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
“The terms they proposed were to allow only the old N200 note to remain legal tender and be circulated by the CBN till 10 April 2023,” he said.Mr El-Rufai said the proposal was rebuffed because retaining the old notes will not address the economic challenges caused by the scarcity of naira notes.PREMIUM TIMES reported that Mr El-Rufai’s Kaduna State, alongside Kogi State and Zamfara State filed a joint suit against the federal government at the Supreme Court on the currency policy.
