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A biography of immediate past President, Muhammadu Buhari launched on Monday has revealed that the controversial naira redesign policy implemented under the Buhari government was conceptualised by the then Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa.
The book, From Soldier to Statesman: The Legacy of Muhammadu Buhari, officially unveiled at the Conference Centre of the State House, Abuja, disclosed that the proposal to redesign the naira did not, as widely believed, originate from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) under its former governor, Godwin Emefiele.
Rather, the biography authored by Dr Charles Omole, however, offers a more detailed narrative, stating that the idea was conceived within the leadership of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), with the explicit objective of starving vote buyers of cash ahead of the 2023 general poll.
According to the account, the policy, launched in October 2022, preceded 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 called 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 government generated as much heat. With hindsight, critics viewed the redesign as a political move aimed at undermining the governing party’s electoral prospects.
Buhari had before the redesign 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 noted, 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As the biography suggested, not every policy can be elegantly withdrawn once the machinery is in motion.
The biography explicitly named then EFCC chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa, as the originator of the redesign proposal.
Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS), Yusuf Magaji Bichi, is quoted in the book as saying the EFCC boss proposed the policy “with the explicit goal of starving voter-buyers.”
According to Bichi: “Buhari’s instinct aligned. “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 insinuations 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 offered a rare, intimate portrait of Buhari in the eyes of his former Chief Security Officer (CSO), Abubakar Idris whose 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.
Idris explained that delegation 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 recalled stopping a newly appointed Chief of Staff at the Villa gate for lacking an appointment.
