Adamawa State Governor, Ahmadu Fintiri, said the new cash withdrawal limit policy introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria, (CBN) is a move against the political elite.
The policy, since its unveiling Tuesday, December 6 has continued to generate series of reactions.
The Nigeria’s apex bank has to limited daily cash withdrawal for individuals to N20,000 daily and N100,000 and N500,000 per week for individuals and corporate bodies respectively.
Fintiri made the comment during a campaign engagement in Kala’a, Hong Local Government Area of Adamawa State.
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He noted that the policy followed Emefiele’s political misadventure which was thwarted, could only have been retaliatory action as the policy may aggravate poverty in the country.
He said, “What is breeding poverty?Economic policies. Look at the one that is about to be implemented by the Central Bank which would further throw the country into poverty. Nobody is saying the economy shouldn’t be cashless. Take time and do it systematically. We shouldn’t do it as if some people wanted to be politicians and they were denied the opportunity, then they use their office to punish the politicians.”
Fintiri, however, warned the federal government against such policies and tasked it to always act in the interest if the nation.
The governor also advocated true federalism, charging President Muhammadu Buhari to review the constitution to allow for a true federation where states will be in charge of revenues.
He said, “If we are talking about governors diverting funds, we expect the government to correct the anomaly by sponsoring amendment to the Nigerian constitution to separate the office of the accountant general of the federation from the accountant general of the federal government so that funds belonging to local government and the state would not also be converted by the federal government, because what the governors’ are being accused of, the Federal Government can equally be accused of doing same ten times over.”
He maintained that there needs to be restructuring of the current system that would allow autonomy to the states and local government, adding that “the way the system is couched there’s no autonomy even for the states nor for the local governments and nobody sees the states as sub-national of the federation because everything is being controlled at the centre.”
