Residents of Kaduna State have ignored the directives of Governor Nasir El-Rufai, via state broadcast, to the effect that they should ignore President Muhammadu Buhari’s order and continue using the old N500 and N1,000 as legal tender to transact their businesses.
El-Rufai alleged that the naira redesign policy is a conspiracy by members of the ruling party and close allies of President Buhari who are bent on stopping the presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu from winning the 25 February election. He described it as “mindless”.
A bus driver, Mohammed Sani, revealed to DAILY Post that he would not “collect the old N500 and N1,000 notes from passengers because l can not use the same money to buy petrol or give it to the owner of the vehicle. I only know that it is only the N200 old note that is allowed to be used as directed by President Muhammadu Buhari.
“If you go to the market, you cannot use the old notes to buy anything, neither will you accept the old notes from anybody because you cannot use it to transact any business.”
A trader at the Kaduna Central Market, Alhaji Sale Musa, also told Daily Post that he could not sell anything because most people did not have the money, “Nobody is willing to use the old notes or accept it any longer for any business transaction”.
Responding to the Periscope Global, a businessman in Anguwan Rimi, said he would not want to join a fellowship with felony, to fail being patriotic owing to treason. “I must ignore El-Rufai by respecting the federal government because Kaduna is a state not a country and Nasir El-Rufai is a governor not a president; unless otherwise we are formalising separatism the same way we should admit and permit IPOB treachery and treason to thrive.
The bankers the Periscope Global interviewed in Kaduna said “We only take instructions from the Central Bank not a State Governor; to admit the use of old N500 and N1,000 notes as legal tender, is to say the least, to criminalise the federal government’s position on what counts for legal tender.
What is current in Kaduna is that following President Muhammadu Buhari’s directives, the old N200 note is generally accepted as legal tender.