Salihu Lukman, the national vice-chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who represents the North-West zone, claims that those who wanted Senate President Ahmad Lawan to run for president utilised the cashless policy as a weapon against Bola Tinubu.
In the primary of the ruling party, Tinubu, the APC's presidential candidate, defeated Lawan and other contenders.
Prior to the primaries, Lawan was thought to be the APC's strongest candidate for the presidency.
According to a statement made public on Tuesday by Lukman, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) implemented its cashless policy because "forces" within the APC don't like the thought of Tinubu being president.
The apex bank reduced the maximum weekly cash withdrawals from ATMs for individuals to N100,000 and for businesses to N500,000 in December 2022. To encourage consumers to conduct their banking online, this was done.
The bank also forbade users from withdrawing more than N20,000 per day from ATMs and POS terminals.
The strategy, according to many, would reduce the amount of cash available outside of banks.
“There are forces within the APC that are also not comfortable with the possibility that Asiwaju Tinubu will be the next president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” Lukman said.
“Schemers that failed to produce Mr Emefiele or former President Jonathan or Sen. Ahmed Lawan as the consensus candidate of APC have unleashed Mr Emefiele’s so-called cashless policy to damage the APC and the candidature of Asiwaju Tinubu.
“But as they failed in the case of consensus presidential candidates, they are also failing in their intrigues to damage the APC and the candidature of Asiwaju Tinubu.
“Like Asiwaju Tinubu emerged as the presidential candidate of APC despite their machinations, Asiwaju Tinubu will also become president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, God willing.”
Lukman argued that Tinubu’s candidature is about realising Nigerians’ dreams.
“That is the founding vision of APC, it remains the pillar of every electoral contest in APC since 2015, and it shall remain so,” he said.