By Ismail Azeez, Osogbo
Former Presidential Spokeperson to former President Muhammad Buhari, Femi Adesina has said the idea of new naira redesign policy carried out by Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) prevented electoral fraud during the last general elections.
Adesina disclosed this at a media chat organised by the Association of Veteran Journalists, Osun State chapter, held at NUJ Press Center, Osogbo, Osun State Capital, said Nigeria had the most cleaner election due to the money redesign policy.
He contended that the policy brought about the most cleaner election in the country and also assisted in reduction of kidnapping, saying the policy was not bad in its entirety.
He posited that former Governor of CBN sold the idea of new naira re-design to the then president and defended it with every facts and the president reportedly gave him approval.
According to him, “Do you know that during 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 further said: “Have you seen where a sitting governor loses an election? It’s because of cash policy. Do you know that about 9 former governors lost election into the senate, it is because of the policy. We had the cleanest election in Nigeria because of the policy.”
Adesina noted that, “There was a day my cooking gas finished 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 every one including those of us that were at the Presidential Villaat that time.”
While saying former President Buhari fought insecurity (Boko Haram) to a standstill, he disclosed that there was a time President Buhari gave an order to security agencies to shoot any one with unauthorized AK-47 rifle because only security personnel are constitutionally authorised to carry such rifle .
Justifying the criticism during Buhari administration which he said was majorly coming from the opposition party PDP, Adesina said his principal did his best in tackling insecurity in the country saying, Mr President believed that governance is continual.
The former spokesman said it is not on any record that his principal disobeyed court orders, adding that Buhari obeyed Supreme Court orders and directive during the cash policy issue.
When asked to critically access former President Buhari’s performance during his 8years of governance, Adesina said, “You cannot assess a government in one area but its entirety. You don’t assess a government by its head but by entirety of the people.”
He stressed that former President Muhammadu Buhari is a man who is systematic and orderly in doing things adding that many people are already missing his principal.