– Says it curtailed electoral fraud, insecurity
Mr. Femi Adesina, the Special Assistant on Media to the immediate past President Muhammadu Buhari has said that the idea of new naira re-design carried out by the Central Bank of Nigeria was sold to the president by the detained ex-CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele.
He said the policy was not bad in its entirety as it brought about the cleanest election in the country and also helped to reduce kidnapping.
Adesina spoke during a media chat organised by the Association of Veteran Journalists held at the NUJ Press Centre in Osogbo, Osun State capital on Wednesday.
He said Emefiele sold the naira re- design idea to the ex-president and defended it with facts and the president gave him approval.
His words “Do you know that during the new naira redesign policy that resulted to the money scarcity, kidnappers were out of business? An APC chairman and Secretary in Kano State were kidnapped. When the kidnappers saw that nobody was calling them for ransom they left them.”
He continued: “Have you seen where a sitting governor loses an election? It’s because of the cash policy. Do you know that about nine former governors lost election into the Same? It is because of the policy. We have the most clean election in Nigeria. It is because of the policy.
“There was a day my cooking gas got finished. I was cooking and had no money to buy because there was cash scarcity, I had to borrow from someone to finish my cooking. The cash scarcity affected everyone including those of us that were at the Presidential Villa as at that time.”
He said Buhari fought insecurity (Boko Haram) to a stand still disclosing that there was a time the president gave an order to security agencies to shoot anyone with unauthorised Ak 47 rifle because it is only security personnel that are constitutionally authorised to carry such rifle.
On the criticism during the Buhari administration which he said was majorly coming from the opposition party PDP, Adesida said his principal did his best in tackling insecurity in the country as Buhari believed that governance is continual.
On the accusation that the Buhari administration failed to obey many court orders, he said it is not on any record that his principal disobeyed court orders.
When asked to critically assess Buhari’s performance in office, Adesina said: “You cannot assess a government in one area but its entirety .You don’t assess a government by its head but by theentirety of the people.”
He said Buhari is systematic and orderly in doing things adding that many people are already missing him.
