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Fashola: Keyamo is wrong, S’Court can’t prevent Buhari from relieving suffering Nigerian of pains
Babatunde Fashola, Minister of Works and Housing, has tackled his Minister of Labour and Employment counterpart, Festus Keyamo, over the latter’s claime that President Muhammadu Buhari, was in breach of the orders of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, for insisting that only N200 notes could return as a legal tender and not those of N500 and N1,000.
The apex court, listening to Nasir El-Rufai, Yahaya Bello and Bello Matawalle, Governors of Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara State, respectively, had ordered the Federal Government to stay action on the deadline for the three denominations in their old forms to cease as legal tenders following the currency redesign policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Keyamo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) spokesman of the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council (APC-PCC), had last week, aligned himself with lawyers who claimed that Buhari’s order in a broadcast on Thursday, but said that the President must have been wrongly advised.
He said, while appearing on The 2023 Verdict, a special programme on the 2023 election by Channels Television. “My view is that the president acted honestly, without intention to slight the Supreme Court, but he may have acted on wrong advice. I did not give that advice, it’s not my responsibility. I do not know who gave that advice.
“In his speech, he acknowledged that there were certain matters in court. So, he thought he was playing safe by saying okay, before you decide these matters in court, may I just provide some middle ground, so that the country is burning, there are riots everywhere, so let me just try and provide some succour for people, whilst acknowledging the matters are in court.
“Now, if I were to advise him, I would have advised differently. I would have advised him to comply with the terms of the order of the Supreme Court. All the notes should circulate for now, all the notes. All the old notes should circulate side by side with the new notes for now, because that is the order of the Supreme Court.”
However, Fashola, an older SAN, and former Governor of Lagos State, a guest of Television Continental (TVC), while disagreeing, maintained that the President only took the step to help ameliorate the pains of Nigerians who were becoming the unintended victims of the policy, rather than a direct affront to the Supreme Court.
His words: “Let me say that in a democracy where there is a right to speak freely, there’s bound to be divergence of views, as you have had. But I think that the principle about respecting and awaiting the outcome of a court decision sometimes has been stretched, if I may use that word.
“There is also a lot of jurisprudence and scholarship about the boundaries of contempt in actions done and in things said. If I shut the door on your finger, and you went to court to say that the court should direct me to remove or open the door, do I say let’s wait for the outcome of court decision when you are in pain, and people are in pain?
“The question to ask is if I attempt to open that door, would you, the person in pain, say I was acting in contempt or would you gladly have me open the door and then go back to the court and say the matter we have resolved it?
“And that is another angle to look at this thing because I think that whatever interventions the President sought to make were interventions in response to the very palpable pain and I think he said that much in his speech about the unintended consequences of the policy.
Noting that his argument should not be misunderstood for misbehaviour while a case was pending in court, Fashola stated that the conversation around the matter had helped enrich Nigeria’s democracy, adding that it had also shown the APC presidential candidate, Tinubu, and others that had spoken up as people of courage who would not sit in their comfort zones when the people were suffering.
He said the fact that recent central bank governors in Nigeria tended to get into trouble close to elections should spur a review of the system to look at how political the apex bank had become, adding that although the CBN had a right to implement the current naira redesign policy, some of the reasons adduced by the bank were outside the law.
“So the question to then ask is, has a law been used for a policy seeking to achieve an objective that is not within the law? And this is an invitation to parliament and I think this is the time to step up and say, has our politics left our central banking-related laws behind?”
Arguing that what happened was a mop-up of Nigeria’s currency and not a swap for which the apex bank could not have expected the outcome, he added: “It seems to me that the central bank does not intend or contemplate a mop-up policy, it actually contemplates in my view, a swap of notes.. The central bank may have overreached itself.”
Recalling how a similar exercise was seamlessly conducted some 15 years ago, he stressed that that it did not cause this much pain, but wondered why the present case was causing untold hardship, stressing that the current development might negatively affect the banking system in Nigeria, though he enjoined all Nigerians to work together to ensure that the effect on the banks were mitigated.
The Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi says he is aware of some evil designs against himself and his supporters in the coming months.
The former Anambra State governor disclosed this in a statement released on his verified Twitter handle on Monday, May 29, 2023.
The release of the statement coincided with the inauguration of Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as Nigeria’s President at the Eagle Square in Abuja.
I am aware of some evil designs being hatched against me and my supporters in the coming months. Efforts will be made to taint my image. Campaigns of calumny are being perfected to defame my character and diminish my hard-earned integrity.
— Peter Obi (@PeterObi) May 28, 2023
See full statement:
For all Nigerians, this is a time for deep reflection. It is also a time to re-examine our assumptions, even as we reaffirm our hopes. Let us calmly review our aspirations, in order to recalibrate our expectations and pin down the causes of our missed opportunities and disappointments.
We stand at that critical moment in time when, as a people, we must collectively come to grips with the reality of our injured destiny as well as the reasons for that injury. It is for us to reassess our plight as a young democracy and identify clear pathways to a better and greater future for us all. As we await the verdict of the election tribunal, I urge all Nigerians to use this opportunity to renew their commitment to the Nigerian ideal. That ideal remains noble and worth every sacrifice we can make.
Nigeria remains our only patrimony and it is a patrimony we must protect, rather than violate. We have no other nation but this, so let us remain committed to rescuing and rebuilding it.
The judiciary is part of the democratic enterprise and a critical governance tool for determining the propriety of the decisions and actions of every citizen and every institution of state. To that extent, and for that reason, I urge everyone to treat it with the respect and dignity it deserves.
We expect that the Nigerian judiciary will use the election cases now before it to reaffirm its independence and integrity. It has to do so, for all our sakes and for itself.
Nigerians must, therefore, remain peaceful and law abiding. No matter the depth of anyone’s reservations about what is going on in the polity today, no matter the real and imagined provocations, and no matter the disagreement out there, we should remember that this will not last forever.
I remain committed, and untiring, in my determination to work with like-minded fellow Nigerians to end the curse of missed opportunities and squandered hope that has become our lot here.
I will never shrink from that original commitment, because I firmly believe that we must change from the present politics of criminality, and corruption, in order to make a new Nigeria possible.
I call on fellow Nigerians, especially the youths to remain steadfast, calm, patient, and peaceful. Our journey may be long and difficult but it is worth it in every way. Victory is assured.
We have to work together to move our beautiful country from corruption and criminality to a center of productivity rather than aimless consumption.
I am aware of some evil designs being hatched against me and my supporters in the coming months. Efforts will be made to taint my image. Campaigns of calumny are being perfected to defame my character and diminish my hard-earned integrity.
These schemes will aim at degrading our support base and confusing the public. But, no evil campaign will alter the substance of my character; nor diminish my patriotic commitment to a better Nigeria. It is about the future of our youths. it is about ending the Years of Locust.
In all of this, I thank Nigerians, our great party (LP) and the media. The latter, as the Fourth Estate of the realm, has remained a trusted ally.
This Estate must continue to guide our people on the immense promise of a future in a new Nigeria.
God bless Nigeria and protect the troops keeping us safe in this season of vaulting insecurity.
Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria. –PO
Channels
James Faleke, lawmaker and Secretary of the now defunct All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council (APC-PCC), has revealed that President Bola Tinubu would unveil members of his cabinet within 60 days.
Channels Television, which quoted him as saying on Monday, at the inauguration of of Tinubu and Kashim Shettima as president and vice-president of Nigeria was underway at the Eagle Square in Abuja, said the President, would , unveil his cabinet as soon as possible.
Faleke, who promised that the new President would bring a different approach to power, was quoted as saying: “Of course, within 60 days, that’s what the law says. He can announce anytime but I just know he must do it within 60 days.”
Eradication of terrorism, waging war against corruption and battling the crippling poverty in Nigeria, would form the fulcrum of a new Nigeria President Bola Tinubu, says he would strive to put in place as his new government began hours ago after assuming the reins of power as the 16th President, after Muhammadu Buhari handed over to him at an elaborate ceremony at the Eagle Square, Abuja, on Monday.
Vowing to defend Nigeria from all forms of terror, as well as end extreme poverty in the country, Tinubu, told Nigerians: “I will do that through job creation and food security and end to extreme poverty. I will ensure that corruption is tacked by strenghtening anti-corruption agencies.”
He also promised that his administration would discourage corruption through the introduction of a credit culture, stating: “Our government will continue to take proactive steps such as championing a credit culture to discourage corruption while strengthening the effectiveness and efficiency of the various anti-corruption agencies.”
It was also on a day the President, who had during his presidential campaigns, promised Nigerians that he would remove subsidy on petroleum products, made good his words by announcing suspension on them, adding that the era of payments on fuel was gone, as the 2023 Budget made no provision for fuel subsidy “and more so, subsidy payment is no longer justifiable.”
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In the military, INEC boss and his team would be executed – Bode George *Why put Tinubu’s boy in charge of IT?
I’ve paid a price for joining Obi to rescue Nigeria – Datti-Ahmed *Weeps on TV
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