Thirteen political parties have vowed to pull out of the 2023 general election should the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN extends the deadline of February 10 for naira swap.
There were 18 political parties cleared by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC for the 2023 general elections slated for 25 February and 11 March, 2023.
President Buhari had last Friday asked for seven days to address the challenges with accessing the new naira notes.
The coalition of chairmen of the political parties, who commended the President Muhammadu Buhari on the redesign of the N200, N500 and N1,000 banknotes, insisted that the policy must stand.
The parties also knocked the Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara state governments for heading to the Supreme Court to get court injunction to extend the deadline for the validity of three old notes.
The National Chairman of the Action Alliance, Kenneth Udeze, who briefed pressmen, said, “We hereby announce that at least 13 out of the 18 political parties in Nigeria will not be interested in the 2023 general elections and indeed we shall withdraw our participation from the electoral process if this currency policies are suspended or cancelled or if the deadline is further shifted.”
Meanwhile, the governments of Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara state have dragged the Federal Government to the Supreme Court, seeking a restraining order to stop the full implementation of the naira redesign policy initiated by the Central Bank.
In the suits as plaintiffs are the three attorney generals and commissioners of justice for the three states, while the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, is the sole respondent.
The three northern states in a motion ex-parte are urging the court to grant them an interim injunction stopping the Federal Government either by itself or acting through the CBN, the commercial banks or its agents from carrying out its plan of terminating the February 10 timeframe within which the now older versions of the 200, 500 and 1000 denominations of the naira would cease to be legal tender.
The CBN on October 26, 2022 had announced its plan to redesign the three banknotes. The president subsequently unveiled the redesigned N200, N500 and N1,000 notes on November 23, 2022, while the apex bank fixed January 31 deadline for the validity of the old notes.
This is as protests have broken out in various cities across the country, with many angry about the pains and hardship citizens are being subjected to in order to have access to the new notes.
