By Adadainfo
Review the cashless policy to assuage the untold hardship Nigerians are passing through, Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom told President Buhari on Wednesday.
Ortom spoke against pains Nigerians are currently passing through as a result of the re-designing of the nation’s naira notes and the phasing out of old ones by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.
He said the policy could ‘taint Buhari’s integrity for the rest of his political career’.
Governor Ortom barred his mind at the stakeholders’ meeting on the 2023 general election organised by the Independent National Electoral Commission in Benue State.
He said the policy, if not reversed, had thrown Nigerians in pains and would ruin the administration of President Buhari, pointing that other countries have changed currencies but there was a transition period.
In his words, “This is the worst policy that the president has brought at a time that he is about to leave office. Nigerians are suffering and some are dying.
“I have said it before and let me repeat it again. The people who are advising the president do not mean well for him. He will remain a pain in the neck of Nigerians if he doesn’t reverse this policy. This is not right. Our people are suffering, now you have money in the bank, you cannot spend it, go to the banks and see the queues.
“This policy will eliminate his name from being an honourable man of integrity. This policy will ruin him, because the man out there that I represent, the woman, the children are crying, they are feeling the pains.”
Governor Ortom decried the lawlessness of certain officials of government in the country, stating that if not checked it could lead to anarchy as “democracy is anchored on the rule of law.”
The governor charged well-meaning Nigerians to rise up, emphasising that: “Anarchy is looming in this country. A time will come that nobody will respect the government. Nobody will respect the police. Everybody will be on his own and that will be too dangerous and it will be late and there will be monumental losses that will come.”
