President Bola Tinubu on Thursday recounted the hardship the failed cash swap policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) exposed Nigerians to.

Tinubu said that realizing what Nigerians were passing through, he visited Ogun State to invoke the spirit of freedom.

The president spoke at the palace of Awujale and paramount ruler of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona, in Ijebu Ode.

He said: “It is a homecoming and I owe so much to all of you and there is so much to thank you for. Because of the way you have taken me and the way you’ve responded to me, all I can say is thank you.

“To many of you, thank you for being there for me and being there for the country. You demonstrated so much loyalty, so much commitment and voted at a very crucial time.

“Your monies were confiscated. The cash swap didn’t work. It was terrible then. I realised that and I came to Ogun State to invoke the spirit of freedom for which we are noted for.

“I invoked that spirit twice. The spirit of Baba (referring to Awujale). The spirit of Baba – Emi l’okan (it’s my turn), that’s Baba. The spirit for being blunt and that is him.

“And the second spirit is that of money (Naira scarcity), ‘ama dibo ama wole’ (we will vote and we will win) even if there is no money. And that, ever since, has been the spirit that is driving me to serve.”

THE WHISTLER recalls that the CBN had redesigned the N200, N500 and N1,000 denominations, and set January 31 as deadline for their legal tender status. But had to extend the deadline by 10 days (February 10) to allow for circulation of the new notes and mop up the old ones.

However, the implementation of the policy subjected Nigerians to excruciating pains and torture, as it was difficult to access cash across the country.

While expressing frustration during his electioneering campaigns, Tinubu at a rally, which held at the MKO Abiola Stadium in Abeokuta, had said the redesign of Naira would not stop his victory at the polls.