What Nigerians Did Not Know About Emefiele’s Naira Redesign—Femi Adesina

<h4>What Nigerians Did Not Know<&sol;h4>&NewLine;<p><strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a><&sol;strong> reports that for the first time&comma; Aso Rock presidential insider&comma; Mr&period; Femi Adesina &comma; has opened up on the controversial narai redesign embarked upon by the government of former President Muhammadu Buhari&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mr&period; Femi Adesina&comma; who served as the Special Adviser on Media to Buhari&comma; has acknowledged that the naira redesign policy brought hardship to Nigerians&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He noted that during the period&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;I had N20&comma;000 which I stretched for almost two weeks&period; There was a day I had a full house and we wanted to cook breakfast but midway&comma; the gas finished&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;When they came to tell me that the gas had finished&comma; I didn’t know what to do because to fill that big cylinder&comma; I needed N40&comma;000 but I didn’t have it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I was special adviser to the president but I didn’t have the cash&period; One boy living with me had to bail me out to fill that gas which I refunded&comma; &comma;” Adesina disclosed&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Adesina who spoke in Osogbo on Wednesday at a programme tagged Media Dialogue with Femi Adesina organised by the Association of Veteran Journalists in Osun State&comma; added that the policy was not intended to unleash hardship on Nigerians&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Enumerating the merits of the policy&comma; the ex-presidential spokesperson said the Naira redesign policy enabled the country to have reduction in crime&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;vanguardngr&period;com&sol;">He added that it put kidnapping in check&period; Specifically&comma; Adeshina said the policy helped to curb manipulation in the 2023 polls&period;<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;So&comma; it was everybody that bore that brunt&period; You will recall that even during that time&comma; there was no kidnapping&period; I remember some people went to kidnap an APC chairman or is it secretary in Kano&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;After holding him for three days and nobody was calling to ask how much they will collect because there was no cash&comma; they just slapped him three times and told him to go&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Even kidnappers were out of business because there was no naira and do you know that we have a cleaner election because of that policy&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Nine serving governors couldn’t go to the Senate&period; They contested but lost&period; Have you ever seen a governor who will contest an election and will not win&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;But because there was no money to spread around&comma; they couldn’t win&period; The policy was not bad in its entirety&period; There were issues with it but it was not bad in its entirety&comma;” Adesina concluded&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;