Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has been fingered as being a powerful backer of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s governor, Godwin Emefiele, over the naira redesign policy regardless of the hardships that Nigerians are facing as a result of scarcity of the new naira notes. This is according to a source close to him who pleaded anonymity adding that Nigerians do not know the extent that the vice president can go in his vindictiveness against his former mentor, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
According to the source, the vice president is “not as loyal to the party or as altruistic as he portrays to people in public. He is pretty upset about the situation at the primaries as he believes that Tinubu disgraced him. He is also convinced that Tinubu bought the votes at the primaries and in order to spite his former mentor, he is giving Emefiele whatever backing he can give to ensure that there is no money to spend at the election, or do you want to say any party can go into an election without cash?”
On whether the vice president was concerned about the hardship people are facing over lack of cash, he noted that the vice president is aware that there are scarce naira notes and he likes it that way. He explained, “maybe when he was a law professor and attorney general, he cared. This man that has tasted power has changed. He is now vindictive. He is a sore loser and would be happier if Tinubu lost the election regardless of who wins instead, whether Atiku or Obi. The worst mistake Tinubu made was allowing the man to taste power; he is no longer the same but people don’t know.”
The source further noted that the CBN was not being truthful in stating that they had released enough notes to the banks. He said that even bank managers were having to scrounge for cash and everyone has resorted to cashless transactions, despite the heavy charges that banks deduct for transactions. He concluded that the CBN was not trying to recall monies outside circulation but was trying instead to hurt the APC presidential candidate.
It will be recalled that the Vice President recently received an election observing committee from the European Union after which he noted that, “the cashless thing has been really advantageous and helps with tracking. That sort of infrastructure is useful for more financial inclusion and the more financial inclusion you have, the easier it is to track. So much money can be spent without it being tracked under the current election financing practices in the country. With cash transactions, it is still difficult to seriously control election financing.’’