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By Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye
The House of Representatives Adhoc Committee on Naira Redesign Policy, Cashless Policy, and Currency Swap, led by Ado Doguwa, met with President Buhari on the currency crunch and the negative impact it will have on the elections and the fortunates of the ruling party.
What was the purpose of your visit?
The Adhoc Committee on Naira Redesign Policy, Cashless Policy, and Currency Swap, like you may have known is a committee that has been set up by the House of Representatives upon the motion raised on the floor of the House. Subsequently, the house gave the committee the mandate to continue to interface with the CBN fundamentally, and with all other relevant agencies of government that have one thing or the other to do with this cashless policy, and the change of the naira note in the Nigerian economy.
On this note, when we now presented our first report to the House, bearing in mind that we are going for general election break, the mandate of the committee was further extended by the House by the level of the Speaker. But while the House is on break, that the committee remains as the only window to continue to interface with the CBN specifically and obviously; every other agency that has something to do with this cashless policy, and most especially, the redesign of naira note, which of course you can agree with me has become a very serious problem in the country.
So, for those of us who are now holding brief for the entire members of the House of Representatives and by extension the National Assembly, and every state, we deemed fit to seek an appointment for an audience with Mr. President this morning.
We thank God that Mr. President obliged us with an audience, which of course we met. One important thing I must stress is that yes, Mr. President had earlier on in the morning in a national broadcast, which he used to address Nigerians on most of the issues; we wanted to really discuss with Mr. President, he has addressed a lot of them in the course of his national broadcast this morning.
But that notwithstanding, Mr. President allowed us opportunity to meet with him, believing the fact that this is a committee that represents the institution of the legislature, which of course is an arm of government standing on its own. But when you have issues to do with policies of government, when you have matters that border on the lives and livelihoods of our people, that the best institution to speak for Nigerians is this institution, the National Assembly, and in this case, the House of Representatives.
I want to commend Mr. President, for the fact that despite his tight schedule, and despite the presentation he has made to the nation today, he agreed to meet with us. One more important thing that excited each and every one of us was that when we met with the President, Mr. President was already on ground with all the relevant agencies that have to do with this currency redesign and Naira swap. The CBN governor was there at the instance of the president. Of course, we never wrote to the CBN governor to join us. The representative of the Ministry of Finance was there. The SGF was also represented there. The Inspector General of Police was also there. I’m trying to say that I, as the leader of this committee, and by extension representation of the House of Representatives, are truly impressed by the outing we have had with Mr. President, because everyone that matters as far as this policy is concerned was on ground to interface with this committee.
Of course, Mr. President, gave his own take. We also gave him our own take. We represent the people vice versa, we also represent Mr. President as partisan actors and political actors; we represent Mr. President in our various constituencies.
Of course, Mr. President is under moral and statutory obligations to listen to briefings from head of government and agencies. I still also believe that Mr. President has same obligation to listen to his ambassadors, especially those of us that belong to the ruling party, and indeed even those who are in the opposition; ambassadors of the government in their local areas and in those industries.
We came to say to Mr. President, that in spite of the presentation he made today in the national broadcast, in spite of the fact that yes, he has ordered the CBN to make some amendments to take some new steps to ameliorate the hardship this policy has already entrenched into our economy, which is already impacting very negatively on the lives and livelihood of Nigerians whom we are representing in the National Assembly, we commend him for that, but it is not yet Uhuru.
It is not yet Uhuru because agreed that the Central Bank has been directed to make sure they make money available, this new naira note should be made available into the economy; the village people for the SMEs, the traders, petty market traders, women in the market to have access to. But how do we ensure that Mr. President’s directive is actually being carried out on the field. That cannot be guaranteed.
We thank God. Mr. President addressed us and addressed the CBN Governor once again to our face, and we also got the opportunity to tell the governor of the Central Bank, you must go on ground to implement the directive of Mr. President as it is as contained in the letters of his speech, as a matter of perception, not as a matter of professional guide.
You cannot be more professional than the feelings of the actual players in the marketplace in the economy.
No matter what policy you want to bring, no matter how good and brilliant that policy is? As long as it brings about hardships, pressure, stress in the system, then that policy would be deemed to be otherwise.
It is on this note that we told Mr. President, we will continue to interface with this relevant agencies, especially the CBN governor, because while we are discharging our constitutional right to oversight every institution of government, we must ensure that the directive of Mr. President is carried out to the latter. Failure to do that, we will also employ every instrumentality of the law, legislative instrumentality to ensure that presidential orders are being abided by. And laws of the land are also respected.
We also acknowledged in Mr. President’s speech that he has also come to be on the same page with us as regards the interpretation of Section 20, Subsection 3 of the CBN Act which says very clearly, that if bank notes are being redesigned, and there is what we call old and new Naira, the old currency must be redeemable at the time of presentations either at the Central Bank or at the commercial bank. This is contained in Mr. President’s speech.
But in the speech of the CBN governor, he otherwise said that can only be redeemable at the Central Bank.
The Constitution says that that money must be redeemable on presentations to the bank, whether Central Bank, commercial bank, or whichever even if it’s microfinance bank. After all, would you expect a local trader in Gibia or a local trader in Badagry to come and have access to the central bank?
Do individuals have private accounts in the Central Bank? The Central Bank is not an individual account operator. So, certainly policies are made, and when such policies now seem to be quite impractical, or that seem to be very inimical to the development of the nation or the economy in terms of its fiscal management or fiscal administration, those of us in the House of Representatives, as representatives of the people, we have the statutory mandate to blow the whistle. That is what we’re doing.
We have blown this whistle in the National Assembly on the floor of the House. And we have come this far to blow some whistle to Mr. President, while thanking him for the new steps he has taken to cushion the effect of this unfortunate policy.
Of course, I took special apology to some of my members here who have members of other parties. But I as a member of the ruling party, I told Mr. President with due respect, that the policy itself is a policy that is against the ruling party, my party. Because it is a government policy, Muhammadu Buhari’s government and the APC, Nigerians at a time of elections are now looking at the government coming up with an unpopular policy.
Unpopular because it does not matter even if the policy may be seen to be professionally good. Some of us see a lot of things that are good about the policy. But the question as far as we are concerned, those of us in the ruling party, is why now? 30, 40 days to election, you come up with a popular policy that is not widely accepted by Nigerians, whether you like it or not, that will be seen as an APC programme or policy of government.
Those of us in the APC are not happy about it, and I believe some of my colleagues who are even in the other parties will not see these things as a good policy. Because the time is absolutely wrong.
What I want to say without any fear of contradiction, I share in principle, I also share in the perception of Mr. President, I share in the perception of the CBN governor that there is need to entrench this policy so as to be able to address some security problems. There’s need for this policy so that Nigeria can also be seen to be working on the same page with international economies. Cashless policy, yes cashless.
Why do you want to be cashless at a time when we’re facing a general election; when our security operatives are to work and the election process will require cash at hand to service their logistics? Why would you say and insist on cashlessness when even INEC is expressing a lot of fears that Cash in hardcopy is needed to carry on activities by the Electoral Commission.
So, like I said, nobody is against the policy in terms of his principle. Nobody is against the policy in terms of its desirability to make the Nigerian economy of course, a worldwide nature kind of economy, but the implications, far reaching implications, and some of the unintended consequences, negative consequences brought about by politics policy is what we must rise to fight in the interest of Nigeria; and in the interest of our electoral processes.
Was there a timeline when this directive can be carried out? Did you talk about the fact that the President overruled the Supreme Court interim judgment?
As far as the committee is concerned, these are days for engagement with Mr. President and officials of the Central Bank. I think it was a fruitful discussion because the President put it clear before the CBN Governor to effect the directives given by Mr. President, and those of us who now exercise our statutory powers to oversight the agencies of government. We’ll take it from there to go and oversight the CBN as a statutory body to oversight government agencies to ensure that Presidential order as contained in this speech are being carried to the latter.
As to whether Mr. President took any legal position for or against the judgment of the Supreme Court, that I think you need to sort out with Garba Shehu because I don’t speak for Mr. President.
How about the timelines?
The directives given by Mr. President are outright presidential orders and they should be carried out with immediate alacrity, with immediate effect and whoever fails or delays in the implementation of such directives, then the House of Representatives will use the powers around it to ensure that such directives are being implemented to the later in the light of the law.
How do you react to assertions that some members of your party are kicking against this policy because they need cash for vote buying?
I think the first question is quite easier for me to answer because of the fact that I have said it abinito that out engagement with Mr. President today was very brilliant. Very exciting and Mr. President has done what we expected of him.
In the first place, he invited this relevant security agencies to be part of our meeting. He has invited the CBN governor to be also there. And we also have to say without any fear of contradiction that the broadcast today by Mr. President addressed a lot of things that we wanted to even discuss with him positively. Why we insisted that is not yet Uhuru is for us to see that the forces of government, really implement the orders of Mr. president to the letter.
A lot has been said by Mr. President, and we agree with him, we’re on the same page. But how would that be added out? How do you have cash, new naria notes, or the so called N200 old notes available to the remotest part of Nigeria. To Belgore in my federal constituency, or to Seminaka in Lira federal constituency, even to the Metropolitan Council? All we are saying is that the President has done well in the steps he has taken in addressing the nation, but more should be done. Like the Oliver Twist, will say, more should be done. More in this regard simply means overseeing what the Central Bank will do. Instructions are here, implementations could be on the other side, and we will help Mr President to follow it up while exercising our oversight powers to ensure that what Mr. President has ordered within the ambit of the law is being implemented without let or hindrance.
On vote buying like you said, I want to tell you without any equivocation that Dodogwa you know, has won the election seven times. And that I belong to the ruling APC proudly, no one of us in the APC and I believe people in other parties is out to buy votes. But you must also take into cognizance that there is a clear cut provision in the Electoral Act which provides for the amount of money needed for every political office holder to take during campaign to use. A member of the House of Representatives is expected by law to have more than N70 million naira to conduct his elections, logistics and other things; N70 million naira cash by law.
A presidential candidate is expected to have at least N1 billion by law. The law has provided for us the amount of money we need to oversee our election process. You need to pay your agents in the villages where you don’t have ATM machines, in the villages where you don’t have POS, in the villages where absolutely you don’t have this new naira. So this is money that I require, that the law has permitted me to have; N70 million as logistics. I need to have this N70 million in hardcopy. As I speak to you, I don’t have it. Which means if this policy continues this way, if the Central Bank fails to make available this money, we need to fund our elections, definitely every candidate no matter what party he belongs to, will be put at a disadvantage. And don’t forget the point I’ve made as a partisan member, that the policy in itself is a policy that is apparently against the ruling APC because Nigerians that are not happy will look at it as a policy of government of APC. This has placed us at a disadvantage already.
Of course, it’s a good observation. Those of us who fight at the ATM stations, ATM stations are now wrestling grounds. Banks are being burnt down, are you telling me that all those people that are burning banks are APC members? APC members are law abiding members of our party.
As a leader of the House, what is the House doing to address the fuel scarcity?
This one is a very simple question. This committee that is standing before you now does not have any mandate on petroleum products. I cannot speak as a person here; I’m seated here in the capacity of being the chairman of this committee and to discuss only this matter under my jurisdiction. If you want to pick up that question, join me in office, maybe I can give you answers as a leader of the House of Representatives in that regard, but don’t also forget we have the what we call the PIB, which already is enforced. Free Market interplay is now allowed in the petroleum sector. So you cannot just click on us now to be those to regulate. It’s all about demand and supply and maybe the fiscal elements of that sector of the society; that will determine availability of otherwise of such product.
What are the demands you came to make from Mr President and what do you intend to do using the instrumentality of the law to deal with the CBN?
I think I don’t need to preempt the actions we’re likely to take in that regard. When we came with our demands, I said it clearly that most of the demands we had wanted to put on the table of Mr. president were already answered by his morning broadcast. And that was why we kept on saying we thank and commend Mr. President for the action and he has taken very proactive, positive actions. I can’t repeat demands that have already been answered. Let me give you one, for instance, the position of the law which states clearly in Section 20, Subsection 3, that the old naira note must continue to be redeemable on presentation at banks. We wanted to perhaps urge Mr. President to say oh, please allow the old naira notes to operate in circulation in pari-pasu with the new naira notes. He had already said okay, we are now allowing N200 naira note to continue as legal tender; 50 percent of that has already been answered. So all I’m saying, Mr. President has done very well in terms of responding to the yearnings and aspirations and of course, the expectations of the Nigerian people. And that will go further to resolve some of these hardships and suffering and distress we are going through in our economy system. When these things are now answered, we now say Okay, Mr. President, like the Oliva Twist, more should be done. Don’t be surprised if as a result of my consultation with Mr. President now, if he takes another decision. Okay, allow N500 also to continue.
So what we are doing is consultation, consultation, consultation and it continues; this is what we call in legislative term as work in progress. We have had a lot of progress, and we’ll continue to consult to ensure that progress is being made until when we get to the right pitch.
