Nigerian students berates Buhari for lifting restrictions on only old N200 note

The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) and the National Association of Ogun State Students (NAOSS) have slammed President Muhammadu Buhari over his decision to lift the restriction on only the old N200 note.

The student bodies said Buhari should have sacked the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, for insisting on the new naira policy, which “had brought untold hardship to the people.”

The students made the statement, jointly signed by the Ogun State Chairman of NANS, Damilola Simeon and the National President of NAOSS, Oluwagbemileke Ogunrombi in Abeokuta on Thursday.

Recall that President Buhari had on Thursday, during a national broadcast, announced that the old N500 and N1,000 are no longer legal tenders but that the old N200 note can remain in circulation until April 10.

But the student bodies said the president’s decision might aggravate the tension across the country and push Nigerians into more violent protests.

The students lamented that the N200 notes are not really in circulation like the N500 and N1000 notes because many ATMs do not dispense the N200 notes.

The associations claimed that Buhari and Emefiele are “working together against the emergence of the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the president of the country. This is the same CBN governor that bought the APC presidential nomination form. It is clear that both Emefiele and Buhari are working against Nigerians.

They accused Buhari and Emefiele of inflicting untold hardship on Nigerians with the naira redesign policy.

“Is Emefiele bigger than the entire people of Nigeria that the policy cannot be reversed? Is Buhari not in charge of the country that he has found it difficult to yield to the demands of Nigerians and sack Emefiele?” the students asked.