The Special Adviser Media and Publicity to the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), Femi Adesina, has revealed he was also affected by the naira scarcity occasioned by the Central Bank of Nigeria’s currency redesign.
Adesina, in an article titled “Living on shoestring budget,” said he has been spending N20,000 for one week.
The presidential aide explained how he has been surviving despite the new naira scarcity affecting the country. Adesina said he, alongside some others, had left for a journey that would take them to “Bauchi, Lagos, Senegal, Katsina, Kano, and Jigawa” from January 23 to January 31.
Describing the journey as one with a key denomination of the naira to be legal tender, he said, “I didn’t want to be like the unwise cripple, who had been told that war was approaching, but who stayed put in the same spot. So I parked everything I had, every dime, and sent it to the bank. I didn’t want my modest funds to become something fit only for the museum.”
“The Central Bank of Nigeria later secured a ten days extension of the deadline from President Muhammadu Buhari, which has now been further extended by a Supreme Court ruling. But it has not changed the fact that I’ve been spending the sum of N20,000 for one week, and I’m still spending it. Shoestring budget? Yes, you are right. That’s what it is.”
Adesina said he spent N6,000 for three days and by Friday, it had shrunk to N2, 500.00.
He said what many Nigerians don’t know is that government officials are also itchy and scratch hard, supporting his words with the proverb, “The hen sweats, but its feathers make the sweat indiscernible.”
He further disclosed calling his banker to explain his plight to him but the banker laughed at him.
