By Fortune Eromosele 

The Coalition of Northern Groups, CNG, on Thursday said that the ‘lame’ response by President Muhammadu Buhari to the Supreme Court of Nigeria order on Naira swap was only meant to deceive the nation.

The CNG, through its spokesperson, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, said it is curious that days after the said directive by the President, the naira scarcity is showing no sign of abetting.

He said, “Instead, the situation is worsening by the day, as both the old and new notes are deliberately withheld by government. And while innocent families go hungry, businesses crumbling and tension mounting, Buhari and his lackey, the Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele appear to be in isolation or living in total denial. 

“By now everyone is aware that Buhari only deceived the nation by faking a directive to the CBN to respect the judgment of the Supreme Court knowing fully well he did not mean it to be carried out.

“Emefiele, Buhari’s errand tool, pretended he was obeying the directive only to further press the cash squeeze upon citizens.”

CNG wondered why neither Buhari nor Emefiele have found it helpful to address the nation on the new directive the way they did when they were imposing the ‘inhuman and draconian policy’ on the nation.

Hence, they called on the National Assembly to rescue the CBN and restore the image of the courts.

The statement read in part: “Both Buhari and Emefiele have made clumsy, scanty ambiguous statements through their spokespersons as though the matter is not serious enough.

“At this point, it has become obvious that Buhari is using Emefiele Buhari in a sinister scheme to revisit on the nation, his harsh, ill-conceived, autocratic 1984 currency review that created untold mass suffering and widespread frustration and the death of several Nigerians.

“The insincerity in Buhari’s pronouncements is further confirmed by the fact that since they were made investigation by the CNG across Northern Nigerian states have shown that since the deceptive directive was given, the deposit money banks have not been reimbursed with neither the old nor the new Naira notes.

“This explains why the banks resort to issuing less than five thousand Naira to customers with legitimate need for their own money as against the Supreme Court order that no president or any officer in government has the right to deny citizens access to their own money.

“Sadly, Buhari has in the last lap of his tenure has chosen the path of dishonor, dictatorship, aristocracy and is bound to leave behind a very bad legacy to the nation. 

“In process, Buhari and Emefiele have not only scandalized the vital national institutions such as the CBN, but also ridiculed the country’s judicial system which we hold unacceptable, unwarranted and ignoble. 

“We call on the National Assembly to move quickly to rescue the CBN, the image of the Courts and the nation generally from imminent decay and slip into decadence by checkmating the dictatorial tendencies unfolding in the nation.

“We also call on the patriotic state governors who initiated the legal process and the ungodly regime of monetary policies, to intensify efforts to save the nation, its financial institutions and judiciary. 

“In this regard, we suggest they meet with the President-elect (Tinubu) and fashion out a way out in order to halt the current national drift toward greater conflict.

“We urge all Nigerians to remain vigilant as to the direction our country is headed and to rise and speak up against these unwarranted, unforgiveable injustices. 

“We call the attention of the international community to note that responsibility should ultimately lie in Buhari and Emefiele in the event of any rapture in the system as a result of their deceptive, insincere handling of the issue of these murderous economic policies,” the CNG said.