Member of the House of Representatives for the Ikeja Federal Constituency, Lagos State, and Chairman, House Committee on Finance, James Abiodun Faleke, has claimed that late former President Muhammadu Buhari redesigned Nigeria currency to stop President Bola Tinubu from emerging victorious in the 2023 presidential election.

He spoke on the sidelines to newsmen while supervising the distribution of rice for the annual Christmas support to the less privilege and PBAT Supporters by the Tinubu Support Group (TSG) in Abuja.

Although he didn’t specifically mention the name of the late immediate past President Buhari, Faleke, who is the Convener of the group, claimed that all machinery was deployed against Tinubu to stop him from emerging as the president.

While describing President Tinubu as an anointed man destined to preside over the country, Faleke noted: “We have enumerated very briefly some of the achievements of the president, but you are all aware that despite all the crisis, despite the Nara redesign, I don’t know, whether all of us have forgotten there was a time there was a Naira redesign.”

“There was a time, because they don’t want Bola Tinubu to win election, the Naira was redesigned. And so many of us cannot even afford to buy bread because we have no Naira, there was no cash.

“We went into election without cash, without anything but God, who has anointed Bola Tinubu, said he will win election, and he won election. Congratulations to all of us,” he noted.

Enumerating the reason for the distribution of rice to Nigerians, Faleke said: “We are here to thank Nigerians and to say in the spirit of Christmas, we cannot just go home without reaching out to all of you. And for me also, being a Christmas boy, my birthday is a Christmas day, I just say thank you to DG and the deputy DG for bringing up this so that we could reach out to the less privileged in our society.

“All of us, not that we cannot afford to eat at home, what we are giving is just a token, just a token. But I appreciate all of you. When we resume in January, by the grace of God, may God see us for the next year, we will start our job normally.

“The political activities will start. The gathering will start. The meetings will start. The mobilisation will start. All of you have also to get ready. I am sure that the party will announce its programme, from membership registration to party congresses. So, you need to get ready.

And we are also aware that voter’s registration, the first phase has closed. “The second phase will soon start in January. It is important that you mobilise everyone to register. If you don’t have a voter’s card, you cannot vote. All right? And nobody will be a member of any of our support group without a voter’s card. You must show your voter’s card before you are accepted or registered as a member of the support group,” he warned.

“We were the pioneer members of TSG. When we came together in the early 2020s, we saw the vision. We could see that Bola Tinubu was going to be president. But then, 2020, we remember we had the election in 2019. And so, 2020, so many people were afraid to come and join us, to show face.

“And I told them, I said, this man is going to be the president. And to God be the glory, that we don’t labour in vain. Today he is the president. Today, even those who were against him are with him now. I mean, so we say kudos to all of you. Kudos to all of us.

“We are not in campaign yet. When the time for campaign starts, we will let you know. We will roll out. But I want to commend all of you for being here. And I pray that Christmas will meet us well. I say Christmas will meet us well. And we will all be partaking in the new year by the grace of God. And so, I will say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year in advance.

Senator Magnus Abe who equally spoke, said: “Tinubu is the answer to the present challenges of our country. The past few years have shown that the president has done things in this country that no other leader has ever done. He has changed the narrative of our country, and he is looking for real solutions to the problems of Nigeria in ways that no leader has done before.

“So, the vision of TSG, the thing we saw, the thing we pursued, is still very valid, and we are all proud to still stand together to say today, as we said that day, that Tinubu will make Nigeria great. He needs our support, and we are here to give that support. So, I thank our leader. (The Sun)