Senator Adams Oshiomhole has asserted that the controversial naira redesign policy implemented under former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Godwin Emefiele was the primary reason Peter Obi defeated President Bola Tinubu in Lagos during the 2023 general elections.
The lawmaker, who represents Edo North Senatorial District, made the claim during an interview on TVC on Monday. He argued that the policy, which he described as a “crazy” attempt to suffocate the system, generated widespread public anger that ultimately benefited the Labour Party candidate.
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Oshiomhole suggested that Emefiele’s actions were a reaction to his own failed presidential ambitions. “It was the anger of Emefiele’s ‘crazy’ attempt to choke and suffocate the system when he was not able to contest for president that produced Peter Obi,” he stated.
Elaborating on his point, the former Edo State governor explained that the policy created an “unusual situation” that made it difficult for any candidate running on the ruling party’s platform to be electable.
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“I have said this but many people may not agree. Obi was produced by an unusual situation. When a ruling party decided to destroy itself as to make anybody running election on its platform unelectable. It is that confusion that brought those votes to Peter Obi,” Oshiomhole said.
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He directly blamed the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari for the currency crisis, which he said effectively confiscated citizens’ money. “People had money in the bank, but they couldn’t access it,” he recalled. “They go to ATM machines, they queue all night to get 10,000, and after a week, even the ATMs were dried of cash.”
Oshiomhole recounted the immense public frustration, citing the long queues for both cash and fuel. He quoted a sentiment he felt captured the public mood at the time: “Why will you queue all night to withdraw 5,000? Then you go and queue for two nights to get 10 liters of PMS and then those people expect that on election day, you will queue to vote for them?”
“It is this anger that, in my view, deliberately created by the president before Tinubu that made people vote against the APC in Lagos, making Peter Obi to defeat President Tinubu,” he concluded.
