President Muhammadu Buhari said has told “Nigerians should vote for whoever they like from whichever party” during the 2023 general election.
The president stated this on Wednesday while speaking to journalists in London.
The president further assured that no politician will be allowed to intimidate Nigerians in the forthcoming polls.
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Buhari said:
“Nigerians should vote for whoever they like from whichever party. Nobody will be allowed to mobilize resources and thugs to intimidate people in any constituency. That’s how I want to go down into Nigeria’s history, as a leader.”
Meanwhile, in another news,
Amina Abdulmalik, Deputy Director, Currency Operations Department, CBN, on Thursday said the apex bank’s major mandate, which was the issuance of currency, was now a serious challenge to the bank.
Abdulmalik stated this at the apex bank’s special day, at the ongoing 36th Lagos International Trade Fair in Lagos.
According to her, the issue was due to the bank’s involvement in lots of activities.
She said:
“Before we issue currency we have to plan, we have to determine the volume of bank notes that will be appropriate for the economy.
“This we have been doing over the years and once this is done we have to send it to our Security Printing and Minting company to print.
“They are CBN’s sole printer. We have a printer in Lagos and Abuja, and that is where CBN does all the printing of currency.
“When printing is done we have to distribute, distributing the currency around Nigeria is lots of work which involves lots of logistics and costs.
“The bank notes we issued are meant to come back where they will be processed into fit and unfit. The unfit notes are meant to be withdrawn and the fit ones reissued.
“Unfortunately in Nigeria, once we issue, the notes disappear. These are the challenges around currency management that necessitated us to do a redesign.”
She also said redesigning bank notes was a normal CBN process and the responsibility of Central Banks around the world.
She said:
“We’ve done it in the past, it did not generate concerns but because of social media, we seem to have a challenge.
“We registered CIT companies, if you go to our website, you will see the requirements, you can move cash, that aspect of distribution, we can outsource to the private sector.
“So it’s something that we expect Nigerians that have the resources to do.
“You can also participate in processing, you can go to our website, you will see the requirements, if you have the required capital, we can outsource that to you.
“Banks can bring in the bank notes, you help them to sort clean and unclean. That will also help in currency management.
“There’s a need to reduce that cash in circulation so that we can use other channels.”
