The Chairman, Senate Committee on the Federal Capital Territory, Senator Smart Adeyemi, has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to reconsider his stance to address the current cash crunch within the next seven days.
The Senator who represents Kogi West Senatorial District in the National Assembly stated this Saturday while addressing reporters in Abuja.
When he met with the All Progressives Congress (APC) governors on Friday, Buhari pledged to address the issue of naira scarcity within seven days.
But Senator Adeyemi, who said the current situation had inflicted untold hardship, pleaded with the president to act immediately to avoid further crisis.
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He urged Buhari to extend the deadline for the naira swap.
Adeyemi said, “Many of the artisans and small scale business people have their money at home. As I speak to you, I have a record of people who died because they had no money to buy drugs in the last few days, they died because of complications.
“As good as this policy is, we should not allow the poor masses to carry the pains for the atrocity committed by the elite. I want to tell the President that seven days is too long a time before the change.
“I am taking a look at happening across the country and already there are demonstrations, violent reactions.
“President Muhammadu Buhari is a statesman who fought for the unity of this country and a man who was doggedly committed to rule this country. I want to call on the President that 7 days is too long a period. The pains that Nigerians are experiencing is too much.
“Three days look like one year for people to bear. I am saying this because we were elected not appointed, so I have the responsibility to give the feedback of the pains of the people that elected us.
“Those elected are the direct contact to the people. In some instances people are paying N2500 to get N10, 000 of the old notes, not even the new notes. In this country, there are artisans who live by their daily earnings. They can go out what they get in the day is what they use to manage their homes.
“These people are dying silently and I want to support all the positions taken by Mallam Nasir El-Rufai and the President should listen. We that are speaking out are the friends, we are his children who love him so that this government should succeed and hand over on May 29th peacefully.
“We have contributed so much for the enthronement of democracy and some of us will not allow for democracy to be derailed in any way.
“This is a threat to peace and tranquility of the country and that is what is giving room for interpretation, and insinuations that some people around Buhari are behind this.”
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