Interview With Our Correspondent In Abuja
GARUS GOLOLO AN ALL PROGRESSIVE CONGRESS (APC) CHIETAIN, COORDINATOR OF NORTH- EAST COALITION GROUP HAS CALLED ON THE CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA (CBN), TO RESIGN FOLLOWING THE CONTROVERSY TRAILING THE CBN POLICY ON LIMIT OF WITHDRAWAL, IN THE SAME VIEN HE SAID BUHARI AS PETROLEUM MINISTER HAS FAILED.
He Spoke In An Exclusive Interview
In the midst of these difficulties, the Governor of Central Bank, has come up with the redesigning of Currency and is planning to redesign and limit of withdrawal you’re your take?
I have no problem with redesigning of currency. I am not against the policy, but I am against the policy on limit of withdrawal. I am against the policy I am a family man, I spends not less than N10,000 daily and you are limiting me to 20,000 with my own money. It cannot work and we will mobilize Nigerians to reject that policy.
The CBN Governor has said there is no going back?
We will not back down too, let him resign or we will force him to resign because he has failed. How much was Dollar to Naira when he was appointed as CBN Governor? Nobody voted him into office, he is not the Commander –in –Chief, if Buhari fails to listen to the yearning of the masses that is his problem because it is like he doesn’t listen or take advice from Nigerians. Emefiele cannot take us for fools. We are Citizens of Nigeria and we deserved better living. The House of Representatives has already raised alarm and taken its position and I believe the rest of Nigerians will take a queue behind the lawmakers. They are just deceiving themselves it is not going to work. If they go ahead we will drag the government to Court
This new cash withdrawal policy of the CBN don’t you think it will cost more economic hardship in a sense that the business community and the small scale business people who depend on such meager withdrawals will be worse hit?
The policy makers do not have the poor in mind. I come from the village where there is no Bank that is Gololo you have to travel distance to Bauchi to do any transaction. There are cattle rearers who do their business in the small market there. You want to limit this poor traders we will not accept it
The emergence of Tinubu and  Shettima is a welcome development, a perfect combination. I know Tinubu cannot tolerate this crisis of fuel. Tinubu has a trusted team. Unlike what we have in place currently where the president has advisers who advise him wrongly for their selfish interest. So, once again Buhari said he’s Minister of Petroleum, let him resign from there because cannot give those responsibilities directive; that’s why we’re in this crisis. Those that have been collecting money that they want to repair refineries, how far? Have they come back to tell us the situation of things and why we still suffer this problem? Let the president come out and tell us what is wrong. They collected money that they wanted to repair refineries in Port Harcourt, Kaduna and Warri, where are we? Where are those monies? The refineries are not working, monies budgeted for repairs not accounted for and workers are still in those facilities drawing salaries for not working. I want members of the House of Representatives to investigate these monetary allocations; let us know where all those monies went to.
Now that the crisis rocking the Bauchi APC, as regards to the governorship ticket of the party, is resolved with the Appeal Court affirming Senator Aishatu Binani as authentic candidate of the party and even the main challenger, Nuhu Ribadu, coming out to declare support for her, what’s the next step?
That is what I have been advocating long ago. Ribadu should toe the part of reconciliation and support Senator Binai’s candidacy to ensure victory for our party. I even met our presidential candidate, Asiwaju Tinubu, on that and he took a fatherly step after consulting with his running mate, Senator Shettima, who also backed the idea. The resolution of the issues has already sent jitters to camp of the PDP and its governorship candidate. We’re sure of victory in Bauchi.
What advice do you have on the new CBN cash withdrawal policy?
Well, I must say I have no problem with the redesigning of the naira notes, that’s why I talked about competent advisers for the president. Coming up with a policy that limits cash withdrawal to N20,000 a day is not too well calculated. That policy could stifle businesses, especially small and medium scale businesses. Someone like me that have a large dependants whom I send money for feeding every day, how do you expect me to withdraw just N20,000 a day for such large family. The president and the CBN should have put a lot into consideration before up with such policy. I don’t think it will go down well for majority of Nigerians.
