The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) on Monday disclosed that it found nothing strange with the APC governors dragging the Federal Government before a competent court to address its naira redesign policy.
The three governors – Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State, his counterpart in Kogi, Yahaya Bello and Bello Matawalle of Zamfara had sued the FG before the Supreme Court.
The scarcity of the new naira notes and the short deadline issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria had generated tension in the country.
In the last one week, many Nigerians have thrown caution to the wind by invading several banks to register their displeasures in bizarre manners.
Viral pictures and video clips of bank customers breaking down financial institution gates and stripping naked inside banking halls abound on the internet.
Similarly, El-Rufai and other governors like Dr Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State had knocked the CBN governor for allowing Nigerians to pass through such a harrowing experience.
But on Tuesday, three of the APC governors took the bull by the horn by filing a lawsuit against the FG at the Supreme Court on Monday.
The governors argued that the Demonetization Policy being currently carried out by the CBN under the watch of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), is not in compliance with the extant provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), Central Bank of Nigeria Act, 2007 and actual laws on the subject.
Reacting to the governor’s action, Minister of State for Labour and Chief Spokesman of Tinubu-Shettima Presidential Campaign Council, Festus Keyamo, stated that there was nothing with the move.
He said, “It is not the first time that state governors are dragging the FG to court. They had done it on a number of occasions like the Judiciary autonomy, State House of Assembly issues, economy and other areas.
“It is not left for me to say whether it is justified. But it is part of the democratic culture we promote within our party.
“The president won’t be offended by it at all. He likes people to head to court to resolve issues.”
The APC Director of Publicity, Bala Ibrahim, also shared the same view when he said dragging the federal government to court was one of the beauties of democracy.
Ibrahim stated that it is an acceptable approach to resolve issues than to have a situation that could lead to the breakdown of law and order.
“Democracy is a system of government operating on a tripod where you have the legislature that makes the law, the executive that executes it and the judiciary that interprets it.
“If any arm of the executives feels the law is applied wrongly, they have the right to go to the judiciary for its interpretation. It is based on this that the will of democracy will work well.
“What the governors have done as chief executives of their respective state, from my point of view, is to exercise that right of going to court rather than mobilising people to resort to using of a cutlass.
“I don’t see anything wrong in the action of the three governors.
“We should wait to see the interpretation of the court. If it says what the CBN has done is right, they have no option but to respect it.
“Even if the governors want to appeal, they can do it all the way to the Supreme Court and the matter would be resolved,” he said.
