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By Merit Ibe
The Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE) has hailed the Supreme Court ruling on the old naira notes, noting that the ruling protects citizens from a policy which is, by all accounts, disruptive, repressive and draconian.
Director of the Centre, Dr Muda Yusuf, who made the remark, said the entire exercise was a needless disruption of economic activities, especially among the most vulnerable segments of the economy.
Yusuf opined that Nigerians deserve an apology from the promoters and proponents of the policy, especially the arbitrary and uninformed mopping up of cash in the economy. It expressed hope that President Buhari, the Central Bank Governor and the Attorney General of the Federation would comply with the court order in the interest of the rule of law, good order and public interest.
Yusuf lamented that the CBN currency redesign policy inflicted indescribable agony, suffering and distress on majority of Nigerian citizens. “The trouble was not with the redesign, but the deliberate and unrestrained mopping up of cash in the economy.
“To date the CBN had mopped up about N2 trillion cash from the economy thereby paralyzing the retail sector, crippling the informal economy, stifling the agricultural value chain, immobilizing the transportation sector and disrupting the payment system in the economy.
“It is true that the CBN has the right to redesign currency, but it does not have the right to dispossess the citizens of their cash. The choice of the mode of store of value is a fundamental right of citizens.
“The CBN has no right to impose that choice on citizens. It is a flagrant violation of the rights of citizens for the CBN to withhold the cash of citizens under the guise of currency redesign.”
