Are we really at our destination in terms of availability of cash to the people? I am not too sure that this question can be answered in the affirmative. Upon the delivery of the apex court’s judgment over a week ago, excitement was all over the country that relief had finally come to the citizens. As days passed by, the judgment was becoming a pyrrhic victory for the citizens, particularly the affected Nigerians. The expected cash was not really forthcoming. The comical aspect of the whole saga was that, since the delivery of the judgment, practically all disbursements from the money deposit banks to customers ceased. Prior to that date, the branch of the bank I was transacting with was always dispensing cash virtually every other day. Since the judgment, however, no disbursement has been forthcoming. It appeared as if the judgment was a halt on the continuous disbursement of cash.
This situation became pervasive all over the country and the groaning of Nigerians heightened. The efficacy of the judgment now became challenged. Except for the occasional grandstanding of some interested governors by way of declaring the old notes of N1,000 and N500 denominations as legal tender, the legal capacity of which they lacked to so declare, there was no implementation of the apex court’s judgment in whatever form. A lot of Nigerians started wondering then, what is the next thing or way to salvage or solve the crisis? How do they get the judgment implemented so as to access cash from their respective banks? Who is responsible for the default so as to be held culpable? Are we to hold the President liable for the default, the Attorney-General of the Federation, or the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)? No one seems to be sure of the rightful position. The President, even if liable, is under immunity and cannot be legally proceeded against and, just a few hours ago, he claimed that he did not instruct the Attorney-General of the Federation to disobey the judgment of the Supreme Court. The Attorney-General of the Federation claimed not to be the person under obligation to implement the decision, as he was not the person to declare what a legal tender is.
The governor feels he was not a party to the suit and no order has been directed at him. Where then lies the stumbling block to the realization of the fruit of the apex court judgment? This confusion is further reinforced by the inability or seeming indifference in the implementation of the judgment by the victorious parties, at least in the interest of Nigerians. The worst scenario was that, since the delivery of the judgment, all the relevant state officials suspectedly involved in the process of implementation chose to keep mute. Several policy pronouncements have been made by the President since the pronouncement of the order, without reference to the judgment. In the same vein is the Attorney-General who has been indifferent too and completely ‘off his mic’ on the subject. Not even the spokesmen of the President since that day up till a few days ago made any comment. Even the release of the 13th day of March, 2023, by the Presidency was nothing to write home about.
This, I will return to later. Anyway, the picture I am painting is that the sufferings of Nigerians, in terms of availability of cash, multiplied after the judgment rather than diminished. So many gory stories of avoidable deaths, business collapse and starvation in the land have been the order of the day. At last, what seems to be a reprieve was unveiled by the governor of Anambra State, Prof Soludo, a one-time governor of the CBN, in a tweet on Sunday, where he said that the old notes of N1,000 and N500 denominations would now be accepted as legal tender in the country. Tapping into the anointment, some other governors took the opportunity and latched onto the information to inform residents in their respective states of this development, urging them all to commence transactions in the old notes as legal tender, with corresponding threats of different contents, shapes and forms.
While some of the governors were threatening prosecution without enabling laws, some were threatening revocation of the right of occupancy of properties, the ground of which could not constitute overriding public interest; some threatened closure of businesses and enterprises and others crudely threatened outright destruction of peoples’ businesses, just because they would not endanger themselves without formal pronouncement from the authorities charged with the declaration of legal tender. In doing this, the governors were exacerbating the torture of innocent citizens rather than alleviating their precarious conditions. Again, what a country!
Even at that, the Central Bank of Nigeria was still hesitant to formalize the directive to accept the old notes, which I understand was verbally communicated to the various chief executives of the money deposit banks over the weekend. As at Monday, 13th March, 2023, no formal circular still emanated from the apex bank to the money deposit banks and Nigerians at large.
The interesting development is that while pressure was being mounted on the Presidency, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Information, Garba Shehu, suddenly woke up and eventually issued a press release that I found extremely difficult to comprehend. After having read the press release several times, I really could not make any sense out of it. I thought I was the only victim of the press release ‘complexity’, until I read several other commentators on different platforms, asserting the same. I am sure that the turgidity must be deliberate. The author must have intended the outcome, which was simply incomprehension of the content. The only message that could be inferred from the press release was the distancing of the President from the disobedience of the Supreme Court order, thereby throwing the Attorney-General and the Central Bank governor under the bus. I am sure that the eventual circular of the Central Bank permitting the use of the old N1,000 and N500 notes as legal tenders must have been precipitated by the presidential press release.
Thus, between Monday, 13th March, and Tuesday, 14th March, a formal circular was released overnight thereby putting paid to the ‘ rumours’ of recognising the said old notes as legal tender. The import of the Central Bank circular is that the public can now start transacting in the old currency notes of N1,000 and N500 denominations till the 31st of December, 2023, as ordered by the apex court. The question, however, is where do the members of the public get the old notes when a comfortable majority of Nigerians that are law-abiding have deposited the old notes with their banks in accordance with the earlier directive of the apex bank? Again, I reinstate my consistent view that most people in possession of the notes as at date, must simply be money launderers or those whose funds are derived from sources other than legitimate. In the course of the litigation at the apex court, it was said by the apex bank that the majority of the old notes had been destroyed. The implication of this is that only the remnants in the hands of a few, including the money deposit banks, are available for transactions, going forward.
This, to a large extent, is infinitesimal compared to what is required in the public space presently. To this end, the struggle continues. To arrive at the Promised Land, therefore, the apex bank will have to embark on aggressive printing of new notes to bridge the wide gap between the public demand and availability.
The only seeming beneficiary of the judgment will appear to be those that are largely not law-abiding who have refused or have ulterior motives not to deposit the old notes in their hands when directed by the Central Bank to do so. Thus, beyond the judgment and its implementation, there is still so much to be done in addressing the cash crisis in the country. As at Tuesday afternoon, the scarcity of the notes generally still persisted. I watched Channels TV news on the subject in which visitation was made to several banks and Nigerians were interviewed.
The situation has not really significantly improved. This is the challenge I envisaged in one of my earlier interventions, where I advocated that our emphasis should be on printing more new notes, even if it be by way of sub-contracting externally, than the advocacy of the return of the old notes, which in themselves have become scarce. I knew this was what it would come to, as there will still be non-availability of the old notes. So, not much has been achieved by the order and its implementation, thereby debasing the utilitarian value of the order. Are we not, in the circumstances, still cashless? I continue to sympathize with the masses who are daily afflicted with this policy.
While not advocating challenge to the government, I believe that our resilience as Nigerians is assuming stupidity. As Charly Boy put it, our mumu don do. The resilience is haunting and hurting us badly and we are still remaining lackadaisical and passive. Our docility is becoming suicidal. For how can we survive this? This is really pathetic. I do not immediately see light at the end of the tunnel and I believe that Nigerians should not be that optimistic. Even with the court order and its implementation, it is certainly still not yet uhuru. Finally, there is urgent need for massive publicity of the development as a lot of Nigerians are still scared of transacting in the old notes that have just been resurrected.
Not all Nigerians are literate so as to quickly digest the piece of information; no energy or electricity to access the electronic media, no fund to access the print media and regrettably, most information in the social media cannot be trusted or said to be reliable. My people, continue to accept my sympathy.