By Abdullahi Alhassan, Kaduna

A group called Concerned Northern forum has called for the immediate sack of Central bank Governor Godwin Emefele and asked the apex bank to halt its decision to redesign the naira notes.

The spokesperson of the group, comrade Mohammed Kazeem made this known in a press statement signed and made available to newsmen in Kaduna.

Comrade Kazeem said “the attention of the leadership of Concern Northern Forum has been called to a press conference organized by the current central bank governor in Abuja, where he stated that (CBN) has redesigned the #200, #500, and #1000 naira notes, effective December 15, 2022.

“This to us is nothing but a sign of incompetency. Our economy as a nation is down and our Naira has depreciated to the minimal value and all the Leadership of the Central Bank of Nigeria could offer us as a solution to the above is to redesign our currency?”

He added that “the redesigning of the said currency will only cost our nation huge sums of money at the expense of taxpayers. This is coming at a period when we are borrowing to fund significant parts of our annual budget and another significant part of the borrowing goes to debt servicing and yet the only solution the apex bank could offer is to redesign our currency, indeed Godwin Emefiele and his entire team have completely run out of ideas and now is the time to show them the exit gate.”

Comrade Kazeem further states that “to set the record straight, look at the current exchange rate of a Naira to a dollar or pounds and you will agree with us that our currency has lost its value completely and what we need now are serious economic policies that will strengthen our Naira against dollar and pounds and anything short of this, is unacceptable by us. Because we believe would inflict more against the value of our revered naira.

He added that the decision to redesign the Naira is obviously to empower certain individuals, consultants, or contractors who are desperate to make something before the end of the current administration, this idea should be rejected by all and sundry at any rate, since it’s not in the interest of the nation and it will add no value to the current multiple economic challenges the nation is facing due to bad economic policies of the current central bank governor.

The forum further explained “We, therefore, made the following demands: immediate suspension of the whole process of the new naira design
immediate sack of Mr. Godwin Emefele and his team’s prosecution of those behind this devilish ideal

The group threatened to “And the failure of our demands will Lead to massive protest across northern region and federal capital Territory.