The Governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, has said that President Muhammadu Buhari can now visit the state as scheduled on Monday (today).
Ganduje said his position now follows the extension of the deadline for the swapping of old and new Naira notes.
The Eagle Online recalls that the Governor had on Friday said it was not advisable for Buhari to visit the state following the tension generated by the deadline set by the Central Bank of Nigeria to stop accepting the old Naira notes and the shortage of new ones.
He said security wise, the visit to the state by Buhari to commission some legacy projects was not advisable.
But on Sunday after a visit to the President in Daura, Katsina State, a few hours after the CBN Governor, who also visited Buhari, announced the extension of the deadline from January 31 to February 10, Ganduje said the coast was not clear for the presidential visit.
The Governor, who led a delegation of critical stakeholders from the state to meet President Buhari, said: “We are very much ready to receive him and we have a lot for him to commission, including Federal Government projects and state government projects.
“They are state-of-the-art projects.”
On the initial advice to postpone the visit, Ganduje said: “Seeing is believing.
“You can see that I have led a powerful delegation from Kano State on the issue of new naira notes and we have seen Mr. President.
“We have laid the complaints of the Kano people and we are very happy.
“He explained to us and also he assured us that the time is extended and the quantity of new naira (notes) will increase so that the suffering of the people will be reduced.
“We informed him that Kano is the most populous state in the federation and also the commercial nerve centre of the northern part of Nigeria, second to Lagos.
“But in terms of cash transaction, Kano is much higher than Lagos because Lagos has gone far in terms of cashless society, cashless transaction.
“But Kano State being comparatively a rural state, so to say, still we have 24 local governments without banks.
“Most of the banks are concentrated within Kano metropolitan.
“So, you can imagine the suffering of the rural areas, rural people in terms of cash transaction.
“But we are happy that the time has been extended and also the quantum of the naira notes will be increased.
“So, we are so grateful to the President for the effort.”