Why are these “modern days lovers of Nigeria” happy about the suffering of the ordinary people, designed and packaged as the Naira redesigned deadline?
The CBN moped up N2tr in a cash-based economy and released only N300b of new Naira notes. The banks, on their own, hoarded about N1.5b of the said money under the guise of keeping it for their high earn customers. The CBN has turned the banks to the scapegoats and is making it look as if the problem is coming from them alone. What happened to the massive shortfall in the old notes mopped up? Who will make up for it?
Assuming the CBN’s story of enormous cash outside the banking system is accurate. Was it N1.7tr of such funds that were outside of the banking system that will warrant holding back such volume of cash from the economy?
What happened to applying the law to punish those hoarding such huge cases, instead of the general punishment being melted out on the everyday Nigeria. If the CBN can freeze the account of AbokiFX and Endsars protesters, why can’t fish out these alleged saboteurs hoarding our currency? It is even alleged that only about 81% of Nigerians have up to Five Hundred Thousand Naira in their accounts; the remaining 19% are presumably business people and politicians. Is the CBN too afraid to investigate these presumed 19% if at all they have committed any crime, but instead chose to punish those who can’t afford to keep money at home but needs it for daily economic activities?
What was the stakeholders’ arrangement to accommodate the rapid migration of all bank customers from cash to cashless? Considering the fact that a bank bandwidth that is designed to take at most one million customers at a time is now taking almost ten million hits at the same time, without adequate IT support, thanks also to “Japa”. Shouldn’t the CBN have envisaged that such technology would eventually collapse in the face of such pressure and the everyday people and the economy would suffer for it?
Are we also saying that the Governors, who are the holders of the economy in trust for the people, can no longer approach the SC, since the President has become dictatorial in a democratic environment, to seek the intervention of the court to ameliorating the hardship of the citizens, in the form of an extension of the deadline of the policy?
Is it legally allowed for the court, while it’s yet to make a pronouncement on the matter, to request parties to hold fire till the 15th day of the month (5 days after the supposed deadline was to take effect) to hear both parties?
By the same Supreme Court decision in Kotoye vs CBN, matters of extreme urgency such as this, the court is allowed to grant an interim order, ex-parte, to prevent the subject matter of the suit being truncated.
Why the sudden opposition from the supposed “modern-day progressive Nigerians” masquerading as the purveyors and proponents of a new Nigeria to browbeat the court and prejudice her mind, even before the court is seized of the facts of the matter, since all parties are yet to fully join issues?
Since it’s a notorious fact that the issuance of currency is on the exclusive list, can it supercede the first schedule of the constitution, which is that the government’s responsibility is the welfare and security of the people? Is this deadline and fire brigade approach not threatening that security and welfare to warrant a request for an intervention from the judiciary?
Are we also saying that States no longer have rights, in the face of serious challenges, bothering on the welfare and security of their citizens, to seek solutions to ease the suffering simply because it concerns currency matters?
Has this currency swap time limit and fire brigade approach not shown to be anti-people, considering the attendant suffering and uprising and gradually being turned into a tool to settle political scores? So what is right here in punishing the people using the instrumentality of governance as a way of settling political scores? When even international organizations like the world bank are also pleading with the government for an extension of the deadline, considering the hardship and the fact that we don’t have the technology for such fire brigade migration.
What is sacrosanct about the deadline if it’s not political? Is there a policy that cannot be extended if its administration poses a greater discomfort to a larger number of people, you swore to protect?
Why wait till the election period to redesign the currency? Why didn’t the CBN do all that in 2019 or the whole of 2022, assuming covid took 2020 and 2021?
I have money in the bank and have not been able to transfer since last Wednesday, not to talk of the people who rely on me for N1k, N500, and N200 every day to support their daily hustle. They will now have to forget about it because there is no cash, and soon petty stealing of a pot of soup will be the order of the day.
As good as the policy is, it shouldn’t be a fire brigade approach. Otherwise, we end up suffering those we want to liberate. Look at the BVN, NIMC, SIM card registration, and others. That was how the government made it a fire brigade thing to the extent that some people almost lost their lives trying to beat the deadline. However, today people are still not registering in a much easier and less stressful way. Why does the government like punishing those it swore to protect?
Lastly, the simple question is, has the court made a pronouncement on the matter? Is the answer No? They simply requested parties to hold fire from all sides and come back on the 15th. Is that not what courts world over do, to preserve the res in dispute, in a situation such as this?
People should wait until the SC hears arguments from both ends and takes a decision before asking the CBN to disobey the order to hold fire as if the court can operate in a vacuum.
@Liborous Oshoma Esq.
Gatekeepers News is not liable for opinions expressed in this article, they’re strictly the writer’s
