The House of Representatives has told President Muhammadu Buhari the cash swap policy, which has subjected Nigerians to serious hardship may affect the smooth conduct of the general elections.
The House said the government must do more to mitigate the suffering of Nigerians occasioned by the policy, which it said was unpopular.
Chairman of the House adhoc Committee on the redesigned currency and House Leader, Alhassan Ado Doguwa said this in a statement in Abuja in Friday.
He said the Committee told the President at a meeting on Thursday that disallowing the use of N500 and N1000 notes will not help the suffering masses.
The lawmakers met with the President hours after his nationwide broadcast, where he declared that N200 note circulate as legal tender with the new N200, N500, and N1000 banknotes for 60 days.
While appreciating some of the good decisions in his national broadcast, Doguwa said the committee told the President that a lot must be done to mitigate the suffering of the masses.
He said “The steps taken so far by Mr. President leave much to be desired. The policy is at this time very unpopular and is capable of creating a crisis in the country that could jeopardize the upcoming general elections.
” Mr. President may of course had good intentions in using the policy to tackle insecurity, reduce corruption and engender the global best practice in fiscal policy management but unfortunately due to wrong timing, and the work of some criminal elements in both the CBN and the commercial banks, Nigerians are left suffering”.
He asked Nigerians to be calm and maintain law and order, saying the lawmakers would continue to side with the masses and resist any policy that aggravates their sufferings.
” We also urge Nigerians to continue to be calm and pursue their lawful businesses within the ambit of the law as we will continue to explore available opportunities to make sure that government does only what is right and in the overall interest of our people,” he said.
The Nation
