Former heads of state and presidents in Nigeria have thrown their weight behind the cashless policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The former Nigerian leaders offered their support at the Council of State meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Council Chambers, Presidential Villa on Friday.
The meeting had in attendance Gen. Yakubu Gowon (retd), Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar (retd), and Goodluck Jonathan, while former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, joined the meeting online.
Two former Chief Justice of the Federation, Alfa Belgore and Mahmud Muhammad, were also in attendance.
But, they issued a caveat that the CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele should make new Naira notes available or recirculate the old notes to ease the suffering of Nigerians.
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Jointly briefing State House correspondents at the end of the meeting, Governors of Taraba, Darius Ishaku , Lagos, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, and the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, AGF Abubakar Malami, said generally the policy was accepted by members but raised concerns about the implementations.
Ishaku said, ‘The CBN was advised to make money available in quantum. The old money can also be recirculated to ease the suffering of the poorest of the poor.’
Sanwo-Olu, on his part, said that the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu, and the Inspector General of Police (IGP), briefed the council on a state of preparedness for the 2023 general elections, and assured that they were fully prepared.
Malami said, ‘We are on course as far as election preparedness is concerned.’
Meanwhile, the Director of the Legal Services Department of the CBN, Mr. Kofo Salam-Alada, has said the agency will go tough on banks that continue to fill their ATM machines with old naira notes as the deadline to phase out the notes nears.