By; AMOS TAUNA, Kaduna
The Arewa Youth Assembly (AYA), has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to assemble financial experts that will come up with possible ways of resolving the present economic hardship Nigerians are experiencing.
The group noted that there is the urgent need for President Buhari to sack the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele to give way to a competent hand to restore the value of the country’s currency.
Addressing newsmen in Kaduna on Sunday, the Speaker, Arewa Youth Assembly, Mohammed Salihu Danlami, noted that happenings in the past couple of days on issue bothering on the untold hardship Nigerian masses are being subjected to is as a result of poor economic policies and decisions of the country’s apex bank, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) under Mr Godwin Emefiele’s stewardship.
According to the group, “The drastic and steep devaluation of the Naira against other currencies even in Africa, Mr Emefiele met the naira exchanging against the American dollar at 1$ to ₦170 but today under his stewardship of the apex bank, it is 1$ to ₦575. This happens as a result of poor economic policies of the CBN and it has been postulated that if nothing is done a dollar will exchange for N1000 before the end of this year. That will not be good for Nigerians who struggle daily to earn their living.”
It further noted that the CBN failed to remit about N800 billion to naira to the Federal Government and haven’t submitted the audited report of the apex bank to the office of the Accountant General of the Federation since 2010, stressing that under the watch of Mr Emefiele as CBN boss, ₦150bn NIRSAL loan money got missing.
It observed that dishing of Bureau – de – Change (BDC) licenses to unprofessional agents most of who are his friend’s allies, has further plunged the naira into further devaluation since these have only used these windows for selfish purposes at the expense of other 200 million Nigerians.
The group alleged that there is a misappropriation of funds of the bank to serve his selfish secret presidential ambition, saying that ₦500bn stolen from the CBN towards the end of 2018 in a private Dubai investment that went sour should be properly investigated.
The group wondered why the issues raised are not been addressed, rather, choose to use thugs and miscreants to engage them on a smear campaigns that hold no water, adding that the launched media campaigns against them publishing and airing all manners of falsehood against them to turn Mr President against them.
As a socio-cultural non-political organisation, the Arewa Youth Assembly core objective is for the unity and progress of the dear country, adding that they shall continue to lend their voices to topical burning issues and no amount of intimidation can distract them from achieving the set goal which in this case is the total liberation of the Nigerian economy.
“Our respect and loyalty will always remain with the President and commander in chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces, who up till date is a worthy father of all,” the statement explained.
The group alleged that thugs and miscreants hired by Mr Emefiele are by their actions dragging the name of President Muhammadu Buhari in the mud, adding that it is nothing new because the same class of people are the ones who criticize President Buhari’s led federal government at every opportunity right from the inception of his administration.
The group also suspected that Mr Emefiele is the one who is sponsoring every of their smear campaign against Mr President and everyone who stands for the truth, pointing out that this same set of people who claim to be defending the CBN Governor cannot come out with superior arguments on issues raised and urged the Presidential media team to take a closer look at each of these points for action.
The Arewa Youth Assembly wondered why it is the same set of persons who have never seen anything right about this administration, would always jump up in the attack of Mr President via every medium available to them are the same persons defending the CBN Governor.
According to the group, “The attack on the Arewa Youth Assembly and purported impeachment of its Speaker, Mohammed Salihu Danlami, are laughable because they are merely campaigns of calumny meant to silence our voices which they have failed on arrival. We want to assure these enemies of a strong Nigerian economy that, these voices of reason will continue to speak up in the defence of the truth which shall be revealed soon.”
The group, therefore, advised Mr Emefiele to voluntarily resign since according to the group he is deemed incompetent, totally out of ideas and has become a burden to the Nigerian economic system.
“We ask that Mr President sack Emiefele now before it becomes too late to reshape the Nigerian economy in such a way that it has a positive impact on the life of a common man in the street. Mr Emefiele has constituted himself a mole in the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari. Mr Emefiele has demonstrated he is a cog in the wheel of progress by making rubbish of all of Mr President’s lofty initiatives aimed at bettering the lives of Nigerians thus pitching many Nigerians against Mr President,” the group suggested.
