Naira crisis: Nigerians are suffering, make cash available, Labour Party urges, FG, CBN
By Jeleel Olawale
The Labour Party’s candidate for the House of Representatives, Ife Federal Constituency, Mr. Olamide Awosunle has declared that Nigerians are currently facing serious hardship in the face of the naira redesign.
He said the hardship ordinary Nigerians are going through is enormous, saying the policy is good but not well managed because many Nigerians could not withdraw their money from banks.
Awosunle noted that the policy is a good one, to rescue Nigeria from corruption, but it is not well managed, stressing that what the government is doing is a good thing that would reduce monetization of the electoral process. It is a good policy but should be well managed so that Nigerians will not be the ones to bear the consequence.
“It will be beneficial to ordinary Nigerian in the end. The CBN governor had once said that there are about N3 trillion in circulation but what we have in banks is less than N2 trillion. It means some people have hoarded money. The government should manage it well.
“The timing is the most appropriate because what some greedy politicians relied on is how they are going to buy votes, and introducing this type of policy will tame rigging. So, it will reduce sharing of billions of naira”.
He said that Labour Party is not benefitting from the naira redesign, adding that it is a policy that will put the country’s electioneering system in proper shape. “Some people don’t want it to succeed, causing crisis and unrest in the country. The time is appropriate but the only problem is the management of the policy and there is no time government cannot initiate a policy.
” I want to implore the government to ensure that Nigerians don’t go through pains in the implementation of the policy. They should make money available for Nigerians, but less for politicians. No one can say if the banks have compromised the policy, but the government should be sincere in the implementation process.
Government should make the new currency available by bringing more money into circulation. They should ensure that banks are not allowed to sabotage the policy by sanitizing the electoral process. But what the government wanted to do is to ensure that there is sanity and sanctity in our electoral process”, Awosunle said.
Awosunle noted that if saboteurs in the presidency or banking sector are frustrating the process, it will eventually become a mirage. Money should be made available to ordinary Nigerians, not money-bag politicians because Nigerians are the ones suffering most so we don’t grand the economy.
“Any politician that feels that the policy is targeted at him, it shows that such a politician has skeleton in his cupboard. Those who say the policy is targeted at them, it means they are planning to buy votes. I believe that the policy is not targeted at anybody but I know that it will affect those who have a mission and vision to buy Nigerians.
“Labour Party is not affected but the only area it affected us is our inability to withdraw the little money we have to use to cater for our livelihood. So, we are not affected because we are not buying votes. We are not buying the electorate because we want to serve them. If we are buying them it means we are not going to serve them”, he averred.
Speaking on the recent judgment of the Federal High Court for granting Labour Party to substitute candidates to contest in some states, Awosunle described the judgment as victory for democracy, saying Labour Party is a party that will rescue Nigeria from its present state of underdevelopment. The court has mandated Independent National Electoral Commission to accept the Labour Party candidates in some states to contest.
“INEC has been compelled to put all LP candidates on its list and this is the beauty of democracy. The vote will now be counted as a result of the new electoral law. It has now been difficult to manipulate or cause crisis in an area during the election, see Osun state as an example.
” LP is a party to beat, a party of the people with competent and trusted members. LP will spring surprises, because many people see it as an underdog. It is the party today that truly defines democracy”, Awosunle declared.
Asked about the structure of the Labour Party, Awosunle said it is the people of Nigeria that constitute the structure of the party, adding that all parties are campaigning which shows that no party is independent of the electorate.
“The structure in which other parties have taken the country to nowhere but criminality, corruption, and crisis. Every Nigerian who is clamoring for a new Nigeria, quality leadership, and opportunities for all and not for few are the party’s structure.
He, therefore, urged the electorate to shun buying and selling of votes because President Mohammadu Buhari wants to eradicate electoral malpractices in the electoral system which has been achieving results.
“Electorate should secure their future by not selling their votes. They should allow peace to reign before, during, and after the election. The youths should take back their country to end poverty, unemployment, and japa syndrome”.
