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  • Updated: February 11, 2023

New Naira Notes: Five Questions CBN, FG Must Answer

New Naira Notes: Five Questions CBN, FG Must Answer

For any reason, Nigerians do not deserve to experience difficulty spending the money they laboured for under harsh economic and infrastructural conditions.

But here they are, struggling to put their hands where their money is.

There are five critical questions every Nigerian must ask the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the federal government.

Even when the naira redesign has been huffed and puffed in the court of public opinion, critical questions about the health of the swap are still unanswered.

Meanwhile, Nigerians, the direct receivers of the brunt of the policy, are left to wallow on the brink of hope and uncertainty.

It would not even be more depressing than we are having now that a camp of the ruling party said that the naira brouhaha would linger till the party’s candidate takes the leadership mantle from a member of his party.

Why did the CBN introduce the policy when it did not have enough new notes?

According to Premium Times, as quoted by Daily Trust, Emefiele disclosed on Friday, when he briefed the emergency meeting of the National Council of State, that the apex bank cannot print adequate new naira notes.

He told the gathering that the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Plc (The Mint) was being confronted with capacity constraints, failing to print adequate new notes to replace the old N200, N500 and 1,000 notes.

We need to ask the government and the CBN how and where they think Nigerians will get the notes when the reality is that they need to produce more of them.

If the policy is not to unsettle ordinary Nigerians, one would have thought that the government would have mapped out a coherent plan to get the notes across to Nigerians regardless of distance, proximity or social status.

Why will they run out of papers?

A federal government policy that affects all and sundry is not a chicken-dead directive that is only feasible during the new year.

It is supposed to be a well-polished national idea that Nigerians will be optimistic about regardless of whether or not they love the policy. 

The CBN governor said The Mint had run out of papers to print N500 and 1,000 notes. 

He furthered that they had placed orders with a German firm and De La Rue of the UK (for papers), but they have been placed on a long waiting list, so their orders cannot be met now.

Should the CBN and the federal government have enforced a painstaking directive when it was evident that the money would not circulate?

They are making Nigeria look like a primary school mock exam with exam question papers.

A responsible government with a considerably large percentage of citizens who live on “give and take” incomes will not have subjected its constituents to such hardship.

Why did Mr President deceive us into giving him seven days?

Despite President Muhammadu Buhari asking Nigerians for a week before he takes his decision, seven days have passed and we have yet to hear him make any.

When the Grand Commander of the Federal Republic promises to address a national concern, the presidency is supposed to know that Nigerians’ hopes would be high.

The president hasn’t said anything concrete while the crisis that hit the country following the naira redesign and old notes swap policy has persisted.

Until the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF) visited him to seek solutions to the cash crunch, President Buhari didn’t see the necessity to address the national discomfort threatening daily livelihood.

Comrade Yusuf Ibrahim Yara, a resident of Kurna in the Dala Local Government Area of Kano State, said the promise by the president failed due to improper coordination in his team.

Yara said he would not blame the president alone for the failure, but his cabinet, who he said failed to understand and believe in the suffering Nigerians are facing as a result of the policy.

Did the presidency intimate governors before stamping this policy?

The governors are closer to the people than the president.

They understand the terrain in their states with their peculiar challenges.

From all indications, state governors were briefed after the half-baked policy was enforced on Nigerians.

Because of the disconnect, there has been a flurry of suits at the Supreme Court by some state governors challenging the apex bank’s policy over the hardship the policy has brought on the people.

The apex court had issued an order asking the CBN and the federal government not to implement the policy pending the determination of substantive suits.

It is logical to believe that the strings of suits are coming because the policy did not have the stamp of the state governors in the country.

Undoubtedly, a serious state governor would and should not fold his hands and allow citizens to unleash the armoured unhappiness of the policy on it.

How do the CBN and federal government want us to trust the old notes?

The Council of State-backed the new currency redesign policy yesterday but advised the CBN to ensure the availability of naira notes to douse tension and lessen the suffering of citizens across the country.

The council itself does not know the reality of the current Nigerian market.

Traders do not want the old notes, insisting that the government has banned them.

Most of them do not want to hear that their old notes are no more invaluable.

But Nigeria’s orientation agencies are relaxing, doing next to nothing to sensitise Nigerians that the old notes are still worthy of legal tender in the country.

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