CBN Withdrawal limit: It’s retaliatory against politicians- Fintiri

The Governor of Adamawa State, Ahmadu Fintiri, has accused the Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele, of targeting politicians with the cash withdrawal limit policy unveiled by the apex bank.

Reacting to the new CBN policy during his 2023 governorship campaign engagement in Kala’a, a community in Hong local government area, Fintiri said the policy, coming shortly after Emefiele’s unsuccessful foray into politics, could only have been retaliatory.

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 who cautioned against such policies tasked holders of key national institutions to act in the overall national interest.

The governor also reiterated his call for true federalism. Fintiri had on Thursday, called on President Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), to amend the constitution to allow for a true federation where states are allowed to take full control of revenues and by so doing assure autonomy for the third tier of government.

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 a 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.”