PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has held private meetings with Aminu Tambuwal, the head of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, and Atiku Bagudu, the head of the Progressive Governors’ Forum, to discuss the shortage of the newly redesigned N1000, N500, and N200 notes.
Godwin Emefiele, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), as well as Gen. Lucky Irabor, the Chief of Defence Staff, and Abdulrasheed Bawa, the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), were also present at the meeting.
The meeting took place in Abuja’s State House, in the President’s office.
The Nigerian Governors’ Forum meeting that was originally planned has been cancelled for unspecified reasons.
The CBN governor’s attendance, however, suggested that the meeting was arranged purportedly to address the currency swap program, which has been the subject of public uproar for days, particularly among governors.
On February 3, the President met with the governors of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and some of the governors requested that the President step in and allow both the old and new notes to circulate in order to ease the cash shortage that was being felt all over the nation.
According to reports, the President cancelled it because a court injunction prevents the government from extending the February 10, 2023 deadline for exchanging three old naira notes.
Sources within the Presidency confirmed that the President was concerned about how his actions would be interpreted as disobeying legal directives.
None of the attendees at the meeting consented to an interview request from the media.