Obaseki says naira redesigning ‘purely political’
Godwin Obaseki, the governor of Edo state, says the plan to redesign naira notes is ‘purely political’. The governor said that, rather than redesigning the naira, the country should “maintain discipline in our monetary policy”
He said, “They say we should all bring our naira and give it to them because they want to change it for us. Is that our priority now? How does changing of currency reduce the price of food in the market? They say they want to change our currency and dollars are going higher every day. We can’t even see dollars again.”
“I am an economist and I can tell you categorically that this policy by the CBN and federal government has no basis in economics. There is no reason to do this; this is purely political. When you decide to change your currency in a manner, 30 days before an election, all you can deduce is that it’s purely political.
“The urgency for us is how to get food for our citizens to remove starvation and hunger from the land; the urgency is on how to maintain discipline in our monetary policy so that we can manage our foreign exchange rate because we are import-dependent,” he said.
Obaseki made the comment during the inauguration of Edo Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) women campaign council, in Benin.
