ByNnanna Otu (Lagos Bureau Chief)
The storm is gathering. The wind is picking speed and it will surely precipitate any moment. The Tropical Storm has been up-graded to Category Three Storm. A replica of Hurricane Katherina is in the making. This particular Storm has been christened Hurricane Emefiele. The signs are ominous.
The on-going currency redesign program in Nigeria is a classical case of a well intentioned monetary control policy gone awry on account of chaotic implementation by all the agencies and institutions involved in the implementation and Control of the process. These agencies and institutions include the government of the federation, the Sub-national Governments, the Supreme Court and the Central Bank of Nigeria which is constitutionally charged with the management of the macro-economic and monetary policies of the economy. Down the road, political Parties and some Presidential Candidates jumped into the fray.
The currency swap program had an October 2022 to January 31st 2023 course to run ab-initio. When intense opposition and pressure mounted as the terminal date of the currency changeover drew close, Central Bank of Nigeria CBN caved in and extended the deadline to the 10th of February, 2023. This palliative of sort, still did not go down well with politicians in the rank of APC who had personalized the Naira redesign program as a veiled but direct assault targeted on their Presidential Candidate. As the February 10 deadline drew near, three Governors of the APC fold approached the Supreme Court for Exparte Order compelling the CBN to allow the old and new currencies to co-exist as Legal Tenders till the 30th of June, 2023. The seven man Supreme Court Judges granted the Order is a split judgment delivered by Justice John Okoro. In the same vain, the Nigerian Senate passed a motion directing the CBN to allow the old and new currencies circulate side by side as Legal Tenders till the 31st of June 2023 (a non-existent date).
For some inexplicable reasons, the redesigned Naira Notes have been exceedingly scarce to come by, while old Notes are gradually going out of extinction. The CBN maintained that they have printed and distributed enough of the New Currency to Banks and so could not understand why the Deposit Money Banks are holding back on pushing the Notes out to the public. The CBN openly accused the Bank of hoarding the New Notes and made a show of exposing Banks involved in hoarding of the New Notes. Inadvertently, the CBN by that act of indiscretion pitted the public against the Banks. The public began to see the Banks as opportunists who are taking undue advantage of the prevailing situation to cash out on them. Still playing to the gallery and projecting the image of a considerate and well-intentioned Agency, the CBN adjusted her earlier directives of using ATM outlets only as the means distribution and collection of the New Currency and now asked Banks to commence cash dispensation across Counters in their Banking Halls subject to a maximum of N20,000.
Somehow, it became obvious that the Banks genuinely did not have the cash to dispense. The CBN , not minding the Supreme Court Order insisted on the 10th February deadline for the swap of the old Notes. At this point, the situation and suffering of the common man on the street became critical. The new currencies were nowhere to be found and the old currencies were fast disappearing. People resorted to POS operators as their only source of cash for their daily funding needs. The POS operators as expected immediately went for their own kill. They now began to sell cash in some places at the rate of N2,000 for N10,000; or N1,000 for N5,000 and what they sold was the old currencies. Some State Governors tried to intervene; they began to openly direct their subjects to continue to accept the old currency not minding the CBN subsisting directive on the status of the old Notes as not being Legal Tenders any more in the country. At this point, the stage was set for anarchy to reign.
Like William Shakespeare in classical work –Julius Caesar wrote: “Mischief, thou art afoot, take thou what course thou will”. Mischief and anarchy eventually took the center stage this week. Having been informed by the CBN that the Deposit Money Banks were hoarding the New Currency, hungry and angry mobs began to vent their spleen on the Banks. The initial signs appeared last week with a lady who went topless, screaming and demanding for her money in the Banking Hall of a Commercial Bank in Lagos. This was followed a day later by a man who bared it all as he went completely naked like a madman in the Banking Hall of another Commercial Bank, demanding for his money as well. These drama skits, comical as they appeared, were not funny; they were obvious harbingers of the more terrible things to come as the situation snowballs from bad to worse.
Armageddon and apocalypse came visiting yesterday. In Udu, on the out sketch of Warri in Delta State, customers amassed in front of Access Bank and First Bank demanding for their money. By 9 am, the First Bank Branch in Udu was up in flames and the ATM Gallery of the Access Bank Branch within the same vicinity was equally up in flames. In Benin City, Edo State, an angry mob gathered in front of the Benin Branch of the CBN. Security operatives on duty at the apex Bank Branch were apprehensive of their intentions and decided to disperse the crowd. In the process, three persons were killed by stray bullets. At Sango on the Lagos Abeokuta Express Way same yesterday, an angry mob barricaded the Express Way creating enormous hardship to commuters. At about the same time yesterday at Abuja, protesters had assembled in front of the Central Bank of Nigeria CBN but were effectively contained by the Security Agencies deployed to the apex Bank.
It is hoped that President Buhari’s State of The Nation Broadcast Thursday 16, in which he directed that the old N200 Naira Notes be allowed to remain in circulation as a legal tender for an additional 60 days, will go a long way in soothing frayed nerves. Meanwhile, our suffering continues.
