The Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, has praised the courage of his party’s governors who opposed the Muhammadu Buhari administration at the Supreme Court.
Mr Keyamo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, said by their actions, the APC governors were “fighting for the masses, fighting for the people to get succour” against the policy of a government that he serves as minister.
“Every single governor that has gone to court fighting for the masses, fighting for the people to get succour, they are all APC governors,” Mr Keyamo told the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja.
The Central Bank of Nigeria had fixed 10 February as the deadline for the use of old N200, N500 and N1,000 naira notes.
Based on the suit by the APC governors, the Supreme Court ordered the suspension of the deadline, an order the federal government has ignored.
When the case came up again last week, six other APC-led state governments and one led by the main opposition party, PDP, joined the suit against the federal government.
However, two other PDP-led states also joined the suit, in support of the federal government.
Mr Keyamo, who is also the spokesperson for the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), said the suit by the APC state governments is an indication of true federalism.
He said that for APC governors to take a stand against the federal government on the policy, it showed that the party’s presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, if elected on 25 February as president, would ensure true federalism in the country.
“People are calling for true federalism. What you are seeing in display is true federalism,” Mr Keyamo said.
“They should support APC because APC is now displaying the character of true federation where the component parts can disagree with the federal government.
“Don’t forget that it was Tinubu that started it long ago when he was governor he was always taking the federal government to court on every issue to tell you that the component parts of the country can disagree with the federal government.
“We are not going to sell off Nigerians because of party politics. That is what the governors have shown the world that we are not prepared to sell you out because of loyalty to the centre,” he said.
The minister said the policy would not affect the chances of the APC at the polls.
He, however, came short of blaming President Buhari for the naira redesign policy which has caused suffering for millions of Nigerians due to the scarcity of naira notes.
“It is those who don’t mean well in the implementation whereas President Muhammadu Buhari means very well,” he said.
“You know the president is the anti-corruption champion of Africa. What he is doing is a clear indication that he is holding fair to his principle till the last day.”
Although there is one PDP-led government among the states that have now joined the suit against the federal government, Mr Keyamo said, “Every single governor that has gone to court” on the matter “are all APC governors.”
While the APC governors have, arguably, been the most vocal against the policy, other governors like PDP’s Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto and Ademola Adeleke of Osun have also spoken against it and demanded a reversal.
In his Sunday interview with the News Agency of Nigeria, Mr Keyamo chided some opposition leaders for criticising the APC state governments that are opposed to the federal government’s policy.
“Now the opposition interprets it to mean that the APC governors are looking for money to buy votes, that is why they are fighting to get the policy reversed.
“What the APC governors are doing is just being patriotic and purely altruistic,” he said.
