The pan Yoruba socio-political organization, Afenifere, Tuesday called on President Muhammadu Buhari to resist any temptation or pressure to foist on Nigeria any form of change of government “that is not a product of democratic practice.”
It also said the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele, was out of touch with reality by saying there was no need to shift the February 10 deadline for the use of old naira notes.
“Reports from every part of the country are disturbingly revealing in terms of the agonies people are going through because of the difficulties they are having in obtaining cash. Lives have been lost while property running into millions of naira have been destroyed by those who were protesting out of frustration,” Afenifere said.
The group specifically said it would not accept an interim government arrangement, stressing that any change of government must be through a democratic process.
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Afenifere in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Jare Ajayi, Tuesday, said its call was necessitated by a disclosure by Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai that some elements within the presidency were scheming to have the president foist an interim government on Nigerians.
Ajayi added that while Afenifere was not always in agreement with the position of El-Rufai on some national issues, on this particular one, “we are in agreement with the governor and all those who insist that elections must hold on February 25 and March 11, 2023 as scheduled.”
The statement said some steps taken recently by the federal government and some of its agencies “seem to indicate a desire to create an atmosphere that may make an institution of government in a manner that is alien to the constitution inevitable.”
It listed three of the steps as creating artificial scarcity of fuel, making it difficult for people to have access to their hard-earned money, and failing to tame the insecurity in the land.
“Granted that the latter has been with us for a while and we have been managing to move around in spite of it with the hope that the incoming administration will put a final stop to it, the first two were deliberately created to frustrate Nigerians and provoke them into actions that can be used as an excuse to foist a non-democratic government on the people,” the statement said.
Afenifere warned those thinking along the line to perish the thought because it portended grave dangers.
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