Gloria Ogbu
The Presidential Candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has revealed that he led the campaign to get President Muhammadu Buhari to push back the deadline for the exchange of the old naira notes.
He said this during a visit to the Oba of Benin, Oba Ewuare II, in Benin City where he noted that he was especially concerned to push back the deadline because “some of our cousins, our wives selling garden eggs, carrots, roasted corn” need the Naira.
While commending President Muhammadu Buhari for giving approval to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for the extension of the swap from old naira notes to the new ones he said that it was the lobby for the extension that delayed his arrival at the palace.
He said: “My coming late is not intentional, it is because of the national politics.
“Some of our cousins, our wives selling garden eggs, carrots, roasted corn, they need money and they need Naira.
“In the process, if Naira is cancelled the way it is and we fail to intervene, we have failed in our duties.
“We have been on this for three to four days and suddenly today, when the President said okay out of great respect he will consider our request for an extension, we were happy.
He also highlighted his plans for Edo state saying, “Benin is the economic centre of this region rich in resources, rich in gas.
“We are working on West Africa gas that will sell in Europe. We would have been making money in this country today if those who said they want power and ruled for 16 years; if they had thought about this, we would have been better
“Nigeria would have been selling gas and the development for Edo would have been different.
“I assure you we are going to mend all those anomalies and Edo will be a centre of economic activities for all.”