By Johnbosco Agbakwuru
The controversial naira redesign policy introduced at the winding up of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, was the brainchild of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, it has been revealed.
A book that chronicled the biography of former President Buhari’s administration titled: “From Soldier to Statesman: The Legacy of Muhammadu Buhari,” authored by Dr. Charles Omole and presented at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja, disclosed that the proposal to redesign the naira did not originate from the CBN under its former governor, Godwin Emefiele, as widely believed.
According to the book, the cardinal objective of the naira redesign policy was starvie vote buyers of cash ahead of the 2023 general election.
The book stated that the policy, launched in October 2022, precipitated a severe cash crunch that plunged millions of Nigerians into hardship, triggering what many described as a humanitarian crisis in the months leading up to the polls.
While officially framed as a reform to promote a cashless economy, strengthen monetary policy and curb illicit activities such as ransom payments, cash hoarding and vote buying, its implementation proved deeply disruptive.
Few policies of the Buhari era generated as much heat. With hindsight, critics viewed the redesign as a political torpedo aimed at undermining the governing party’s electoral prospects.
According to the book, long before the redesign itself, Buhari had approved a proposal from monetary authorities to upgrade domestic currency production, ending reliance on foreign printers and building national capacity.
He funded the necessary upgrades and insisted on local capability. It was along this trajectory, the book notes, that the redesign proposal emerged, now packaged with the ambition of sanitising cash flows and undercutting money politics.
Buhari’s long-standing aversion to money-driven politics aligned with the pitch. By the time it became apparent, at least to some within the security establishment, that the political and operational costs were spiralling, the process had gathered irreversible momentum. Currency samples had been printed and timelines fixed.
As the book suggests, not every policy can be elegantly withdrawn once the machinery is in motion.
The biography explicitly names then EFCC chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa, as the originator of the redesign proposal.
The Director-General of the Department of State Services, DSS, Yusuf Magaji Bichi, is quoted as saying the EFCC boss proposed the policy “with the explicit goal of starving voter-buyers.”
“Buhari’s instinct aligned,” Bichi recounts. “He had fought money politics for decades and was attracted to an idea that might, even painfully, clean up the field. Buhari was sure Asiwaju would win, so he was not concerned about cleaning up the process and levelling the field.”
Amid intense political accusations that the policy was designed to damage the ruling party, Bichi said Buhari ordered that investigative reports be sent directly to him, wary of sabotage or misrepresentation. Yet the President’s posture remained consistent: avoid interference in law enforcement, insist on transparency, and allow events to unfold without weaponising the state against opponents or shielding allies.
Beyond policy, the book also offers a rare, intimate portrait of Buhari through the lens of his former Chief Security Officer (CSO), Abubakar Idris. Idris’ account is less about partisan battles than about the discipline, restraint and institutional habits of a commander-in-chief.
He described a President who delegated freely, demanded results without micromanagement, and shunned gossip. We encounter the human Buhari too: a leader who refused the public arrest of a relative, insisted on stopping at red lights even in convoy, and believed that dignity itself was a form of national security.
Delegation, Idris explains, defined Buhari’s presidency. “Trust was the red line. Once the President trusted you, he gave you space to perform, but that space came with responsibility.”
Excuses, he adds, had only fleeting validity.
Access to the President was tightly regulated. Appointments mattered. Gatekeeping was professional, even when it unsettled the powerful. Idris recalls stopping a newly appointed Chief of Staff at the Villa gate for lacking an appointment, and standing his ground.
Buhari never overruled such decisions, even when influential figures bristled. In a political culture where proximity often masquerades as privilege, that consistency, Idris argues, reinforced institutional dignity.
The book also challenges persistent rumours of a shadowy cabal isolating Buhari from reality. Idris insists the President was well informed through structured systems, not whispers.
Daily executive summaries, covering national security, power generation, fuel supply and political developments, were delivered seven days a week.
Buhari read them, asked questions and issued directives where necessary.
“He knew,” Idris concludes, offering a counternarrative to one of the most enduring myths of the Buhari years.
The post EFCC sparked Naira redesign disaster, book exposes appeared first on Vanguard News.
