President Buhari has insisted that he has not seen any compelling reason to devalue the naira believing that the only people it is hurting are the elites who make up less than 1% of the population. This decision is however not going down well with members of his cabinet according to a report by Thisday.
According to Thisday investigations, some members of Bhari’s cabinet which they did not name revealed that some State Governors are requesting that the President relaxes his dogged opposition to devaluation. According to the report, they believe that if devaluation is done, they will have more naira available to them to share and spend. Here is what one of the officials interviewed said to Thisday;
“Yes, there are those in government who want it, but there is stiff resistance from Buhari and the CBN. But those who are pro-devaluation have argued that with oil prices at a 12-year low, our foreign earning have declined to less than a billion dollars a month. To top it, we have no buffers to shield us from the oil price decline. So they believe that if we devalue, the three tiers of government, especially states with a cash crunch, will have more money to share from oil earnings going to the Federation Account. And this will enable the three tiers of government to meet their obligations to their workers, contractors, and help to reflate the economy which is literally comatose at the moment.”
The CBN as one will expect, is against this argument as that will mean gross insubordination to the President. The CBN has also claimed severally that it is in control of monetary policies even though the actions of the President connoted that he is the one in charge. One of the most vocal Governors and APC kingpin, Adams Oshiomole also vented his support for Buhari’s policies when he spoke at the devaluation debate organized by the Cable Newspaper.