A new biography of former President Muhammadu Buhari has revealed that the controversial naira redesign policy introduced ahead of the 2023 general election was proposed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), with the aim of cutting off cash supplies used for vote buying.
The revelation is contained in From Soldier to Statesman: The Legacy of Muhammadu Buhari, presented on Monday at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
According to the book, the idea to redesign the naira did not originate from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), as was widely assumed at the time, but from the EFCC, where it was conceived as a strategy to disrupt money politics and weaken the cash-based machinery of electoral manipulation.
Although the book did not mention the name of Abdulrasheed Bawa who was appointed Chairman of the EFCC in February 2021 by former President Buhari. He was later arrested and taken into custody by the Department of State Services (DSS) on June 14, 2023, the same day President Bola Tinubu suspended him as Chairman of the EFCC.
His arrest followed allegations of abuse of office and financial misconduct, after which he was detained for weeks while investigations were conducted. He was later released from DSS custody in October 2023, though investigations into his tenure were reported to be ongoing at the time.
The biography states that the then EFCC boss proposed the policy “with the explicit goal of starving voter-buyers of cash” in the build-up to the 2023 elections. This account is attributed to the Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS), Yusuf Bichi, who is quoted extensively in the book.
The naira redesign policy, launched in October 2022, later triggered a severe cash shortage across the country, leaving millions of Nigerians struggling to access money and sparking widespread public outrage. While the policy was officially justified as a monetary reform to promote a cashless economy, curb ransom payments, reduce cash hoarding and tackle vote buying, its rollout became one of the most disruptive episodes of the Buhari administration.
The book explains that Buhari’s long-standing opposition to money-driven politics made him receptive to the EFCC’s proposal. Bichi is quoted as saying the former president believed the policy could “clean up the field,” even if it proved painful in the short term, adding that Buhari was confident the eventual winner of the election would emerge through a fairer process.
“Buhari’s instinct aligned,” Bichi said. “He had fought money politics for decades and was attracted to an idea that might clean up the system, even at a cost.”
