By Kamal Tayo Oropo
The Head of Media and Publicity of Bola Tinubu Support Organisation in the United Kingdom (BTSO-UK), Mr Olumuyiwa Adeliyi, said the naira swap crisis was avoidable.
In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Lagos, Adeliyi expressed disappointment over the hardship and difficulties the policy had brought on Nigerians.
He said BTSO-UK sympathised with Nigerians who are inconvenienced with the abrupt change and invalidation of old currency notes.
Adeliyi said the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Sen. Bola Tinubu, remained committed to the comfort and convenience of Nigerians in their daily lives.
He said these daily activities include commerce, which required seamless access to money.
Adeliyi also decried the sharp practices of some money agents exploiting the confusion by “selling new naira notes” which is aggravating the problem.
“The APC presidential candidate looks forward to the timely resolution of the currency notes imbroglio soon,” Adeliyi said.
He noted that change of currency designs was a normal policy of governments all over the world when required.
“This is done for justifiable reasons. One of them is to improve the look and feel of the notes.
“It could also be to improve the security mechanisms on the notes to easily detect fake ones.
“Change of currency notes must not be for political reasons,” Adeliyi said.
According to him, in many countries around the world, it is noteworthy that old currency notes and new ones are legal tenders simultaneously.
He explained that the notes to be replaced were not abruptly removed from circulation unlike what happened in Nigeria.
Adeliyi stressed that in those countries, the old notes would not be printed again and copies of those notes were returned to the banks through different transactions.
“The old notes will not be circulated back into the market until the old notes are mopped up from circulation.
“This makes it easy for people to transition from old to new. The policy to change the look and feel of currency notes is a normal practice and it is legal.
“However, removing or invalidating old notes abruptly can only lead to chaos and disruption in commerce which unfortunately is the current experience in Nigeria at this time,” he said.
Adeliyi also countered what he called the erroneous claims linking access to the new naira notes crises to the APC presidential candidate.
He said the change of currency notes was a government policy and the APC presidential candidate was not in government.
Adeliyi said, hence, Tinubu did not have a say or influence on currency management and policy in the country.
“Tinubu is not responsible for naira notes change and the change is not related to his political ambition,” he said
