The Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo has disagreed with the position of President Muhammadu Buhari on the naira redesign policy.
Speaking on Friday during a live interview appearance on Channels Television, Keyamo who is also the Official Spokesperson for All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council said Buhari was wrongly advised to disobey the Supreme Court order on the validity of the old naira notes.
He argued that the action taken by Buhari contradicts the order of the Supreme Court and that nobody should be above the law.
Naija News recalls President Buhari had on Thursday in a nationwide broadcast, approved the continuous usage of the old 200 naira notes as a legal tender until the 10th of April. 
The president stated that the old 200 naira notes will be distributed back into circulation by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
He however added that the old N500 and ₦1,000 are no longer legal tenders.
This is contrary to an earlier order of the Supreme Court on the matter which had directed that all the old notes should remain legal tenders until a final judgment is given in the matter before the apex court.
The development had generated mixed reactions and in attempting to absolve himself of the blame, Keyamo during his interview on Friday said he wasn’t part of those who advised Buhari on the matter but if it had been up to him, he would have told the President to fully obey the Supreme Court order and allow the old naira notes remain in circulation beyond February 10 pending a final determination of the suit before the apex court.
He said: “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.
“I want to say this openly, because tomorrow, people would ask me where I stood at this time. So, I think the President did not, because 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.”
“Anything to the contrary is a descent to anarchy, and I can tell you, the day we begin to disobey the order of the Supreme Court, that is an invitation to intervention in our democracy…”
Watch the video below.
The post Naira Swap Policy: Your Action Can Lead To Anarchy – Festus Keyamo Slams Buhari On National TV (Video) appeared first on Naija News.
