NAIRA SCARCITY IN NIGERIA

• Africa News Update
• February 16, 2023

Nigeria’s resolve regarding the scarcity of cash

We take a look at the recent updates concerning the scarcity of cash in Neighboring Nigeria. Well in past days we have old You the upheaval and chaos the scarcity of cash has caused amongst neighboring nigeria, and why some thought it was a necessary trial that would pass soon. Well subsequent stories regarding that, has it that the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) has called on the Central Bank of Nigeria to listen to the voice of reason and follow the rule of law in its pursuit of the naira redesign policy. Well this is as the Forum assured Nigerians that it felt their pains and is “determined to employ all legitimate channels to ease the situation.”

Although the old currency is still in circulation, after the previous deadline for 10th February. The NGF stated these in a communiqué signed by its chairman and Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal, and issued at the end of its meeting held on Saturday in Abuja, according to a report by Premium Times. The Forum warned that the country might be at risk of a recession following the naira redesign policy of the CBN. The NGF called on the Federal government “to respect the Rule of Law and listen to the voice of reason expressed by Nigerians and several other stakeholders including the Council of State, before the damage to our economy becomes too great to fix by the next administration.”It added that “we express our sympathies and support with Nigerians who are experiencing great difficulties under the current CBN naira re-design and cash withdrawal restrictions policy.” The governors said the CBN was pursuing an “aspirational policy of going cashless” and a “currency confiscation programme”, and not the naira redesign policy provided for in the CBN Act.

Interestingly there has been a very crucial reaction to this from a Nigerian Professor Farooq A. Kperogi

His tweet said

“In this week's column, I show that while Tinubu is the sole target of Buhari's naira recoloring policy everyday Nigerians are its victims, and Tinubu and APC governors are finding a way around the naira blockade”. The whole article from him went on to say. “It was the exceptionally witty and satirical Senator Shehu Sani who first pointed out that the recoloring of the naira and the deathly, crippling scarcity that has come in its wake only a few days to the general election are akin to burning the entire forest while hunting down a rat. Many people missed the import of the senator’s metaphor. So, let me bring it down from the stratosphere of abstract metaphors to a more placid, mundane truth. Buhari and his inner circle are not hunting down a rat; they are after a bat— or, if you like, a BAT with capital letters—that lives in a massive, glitzy mansion on Bourdillon Road in Ikoyi, Lagos. They’re in mortal dread of the BAT because of its bullion vans and what it did with the vans during past elections and what it can do with them during this year’s general election.

To cut to the chase, Bola Ahmed Tinubu (BAT) is the single most important reason Buhari has chosen to recolor the naira as a pretext to consciously make it scarce and thereby prevent Tinubu from using it to win this month’s presidential election. That’s all there is to it.” Well while all the battle to and fro on the issue of cash scarcity amidst politics was going on. The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, during the weekend, challenged a suit by Social Rehabilitation Grace and Supportive Initiative, SRG, over redesigned naira notes, before a Federal High Court, sitting in Akure, Ondo State, contending that the move was to save Nigeria’s democracy by checking vote-buying, during the presidential election. The plaintiffs in the suit, asking the court to compel the apex bank to extend the expiration date for the old Naira notes.

CBN, in its counter-affidavit through its counsel, O. M. Atoyebi, opposed SRG’s prayer for an interlocutory injunction because “The extension of the expiry date for the old naira notes of N200, N500 and N1000, will give room for vote-buying and undermine the forthcoming election.” The applicants also add that the court should give “An order compelling the respondent to extend the submission of old N200, N500 and N2000 currency notes, by a minimum of six months before same are finally called in and cease to be a legal tender, pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice.” So some Nigerians still believe it is a matter of pushing corruption into the electoral periods through bribery, while others are not concerned about that, and just want money to be circulated.