Naira Swap Policy: President Buhari may have acted on wrong advice - Festus Keyamo

Recall that on Thursday, February 16, President Buhari in a national broadcast on the controversial policy, ordered that the old N200 banknotes remain in circulation till April 10, while the old N500 and N1,000 bills no longer serve as legal tender.

The ensuing currency scarcity has led to protests across the country with several cases of ATMs destroyed, as well as banking facilities and property damaged.

Speaking on Channels on up night, February 17, Keyamo said, "My view is that the President acted honestly without intention to slight the Supreme Court. But he may have acted on wrong advice. I did not give that advice; it is not my responsibility. I don’t know who gave that advice. I want to say this openly because tomorrow, people will ask me where I stood at this time,” he said.

The Minister of State for Labour stated that President Buhari’s speech acknowledged that there were certain matters in court and that the President believed he was playing safe by purportedly intervening to quell the growing tension across the country.

“He thought he was playing safe by saying, ‘Before you decide this matter in court, may I just provide some middle ground so that country burning, there are riots everywhere, so let me just try and provide some succour to the people, whilst acknowledging the matters are in court.

Now, if I were to advise him, I would have advised differently. I did not advise him. It’s not my responsibility; I don’t know who.”

Asked what his counsel to the President would have been, Keyamo said it would be for him to “comply strictly with the terms of the order of the Supreme Court, [which is that] all the old notes should circulate for now side by side with the new notes because that is the order of the Supreme Court.”

He added that by virtue of the constitution, “all authorities in Nigeria must obey the orders of the Supreme Court, “adding that anything to the contrary is “a descent to anarchy.”