The Special Investigator on the Central Bank of Nigeria and Related Entities, Jim Obazee, has indicated that the recent naira redesign wasn’t expressly approved by former President Muhammadu Buhari.
According to Obazee, the approval came from Buhari’s nephew, Sabiu Tunde ‘Yusuf’.
The revelation was contained in the investigator’s final report tagged, ‘Report of the Special Investigation on CBN and Related Entities (Chargeable Offences) submitted to President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday.
Also in the report, the former CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele was said to have collaborated with Sabiu to implement the naira redesign.
It was gathered that the naira redesign policy was sold to Buhari at the instance of Sabiu and that the initiative was done without the approval of the board of the CBN.
The investigator found that it was Sabiu who first told Emefiele in September 2022 to consider the redesign of the naira.
“On October 6, 2022, Emefiele wrote to Buhari that he wanted to redesign and reconfigure the N1000, N500, and N200 notes.
“The former president tagged along but did not approve the redesign as required by law. Buhari merely approved that the currency be printed in Nigeria. The redesign was only mentioned to the board of the CBN on December 15, 2022, after Emefiele had awarded the contract to Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Plc on October 31, 2022,’’ the documents noted.
