Former President Muhammadu Buhari, said he was justified in approving the naira redesign policy at the peak of campaign for the 2023 general election.
General Buhari rtd who was speaking during an interview with NTA Monday night insisted that the much naira swap policy, which brought hardships to Nigerians was meant to deter politicians who wanted to use money to buy their way into power.
Bola Tinubu before he was declared President, had lamented that the policy was targeted at him and political observers believe it was the reason, he removed former Central Bank of Nigeria governor Godwin Emefiele who has been remanded in prison on procurement fraud charge.
Speaking on the unpopular policy, Buhari stated: “The motivation is to try and make Nigerians believe that there is no shortcut to successful leadership in the sense that service is not easy, as I said after three attempts and ending up in the Supreme Court.
“Nigeria, believe it or not, we’re an underdeveloped country. We get so impressed by our material things and sometimes ruthlessly don’t care how we make the money. You should be rich, have a fantastic house, flashy cars, and go overseas regularly.
“A lot of Nigerians will say that is very stupid. They would rather have the quickest or fastest way of getting there, and the only way of doing it is to try to accumulate some money, to have a lot of money, and see how you can compromise so many people and maybe institutions and get what you wanted to get.
“But I think patriotism if you sympathize with your own people, ordinary Nigerians, and how they struggle to maintain their households, how they struggle to keep their children in school, to make sure they don’t suffer, those who are sensible enough realise it is not easy and it is a difficult way of doing things.
“Do they have the courage to take the difficult way of doing things and make sure that they bring up their children well by suffering themselves?”
