‘Tinubu’s Outburst Compelled FG to Extend Deadline for Naira Swap’

By John Shiklam in Kaduna

Arewa for Asiwaju, a group supporting  the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, has commended him for speaking out against the January 31st dateline for the naira swapping of old naira notes with new ones.

In a statement yesterday  in Kaduna, the group said  it believed that Tinubu’s “Abeokuta declaration”, compelled  the federal government to extend the deadline for the naira swap to February 10.

It added that the extension “saved the nation from going up in flames, as  consequence of the raging public anger that pervaded the atmosphere. “

The group attributed the extension  to   “Tinubu’s sagacity and courage,”.

The statement said: “It was this courage and purposeful leadership shown by the Asiwaju that compelled the government to go back on its earlier ‘no going back st, “Nigerians certainly owe Tinubu immense gratitude for stepping in and risking everything to change the obviously bad situation  occasioned by the initial January 31st deadline.”

The statement stressed  further that, “whether anyone wants to believe it or not, it is the courageous sagacity displayed by Tinubu that invariably saved the Nigerian commoner from suffering the pains of the initial timeline set by the federal government for the unpopular new currency swap.

“And by that singular action, Tinubu also saved the nation from going up in flames as consequence of the raging public anger that pervaded the atmosphere before the sudden 10 days extension.

“Tinubu, proving himself a great statesman,  in his now famous Abeokuta declaration, took the bold and necessary step of alerting on the dangers inherent in the new naira policy, its timing and deadline.

“Apparently rattled the President invited Asiwaju to Daura where the man stood his ground insisting the policy was unnecessary, unpopular and would only harm the common man and lead to greater conflict.

“The nation certainly owes Tinubu immense gratitude for stepping in and risking everything to save an obvious bad situation.”