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Happy Easter and kudos to all Nigerians! It feels great to be alive and healthy on this day that is the core of the hope of true believers in eternal life. The reason is because the grace of God enabled us to survive and live without cash in the first three months of this year, as the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, moved to fully implement the cashless policy and the Naira Redesign Initiative, which then created cash crunch. Gradually the era of “I don’t have cash” is passing away as the apex bank continues to inject cash into the economy.
Just like other Nigerians, corporate workers experienced severe difficulties getting cash to pay fares to get to work. This fact was not lost on corporate chief executives like the Managing Director/Editor-in-chief of The Sun Publishing Limited, Mr. Onuoha Ukeh, who, during a general with the company’s staff, congratulated them for their steadfastness and dedication to duty in the face of the cash crunch never before witnessed in the country. I also congratulate Nigerians for being resilient and surviving the draconic cashless and cash crunch. “Now, I have learnt that I can live without cash, likewise most other Nigerians, ” Mr. Onuoha said. The naira redesign policy, which intended the CBN to regain control over the N2.7 trillion excess cash outside the banking system and hoarded by unscrupulous political actors with intent to manipulate the electoral processes and elections proper. Unfortunately, the manner of implementing the policy left a bad taste in the mouth of Nigerians. The operation of the electronic funds transfer platform at the time could be likened to a boat designed to carry five passengers safely but got overloaded with 15 passengers. Thus led to millions of failed transactions as customers sent cash transfers failed to receive value in their accounts. There was pain, anger, bitterness, suffering and agony as people besieged banks, queuing endlessly to get little rations of cash on the days that banks got cash from the CBN.
In the face of all these, the poor citizens bore it all, lived and survived without cash. It also affected people in the middle and upper middle class sections of the society. For once the poor and the rich suffered together. You had situations in filling stations where managerial class individuals would humbly ask for one naira to buy a bottle of water as they could not pay for such item by transferring the amount to the poor hawker who obviously may have not a bank account.
Soon, the inert human ability to survive adverse situations kicked in. For instance, my neighbour, Mrs. Ngozi Anene’s younger sister in Aba who is a beverage wholesaler, packaged an amount of cash and sent to her with a waybill through an interstate bus company, for her buy foodstuff for her family while elder sister transferred an equivalent amount to the sister in Aba. I know of a colleague residing in Jakande Estate, Isolo, Lagos who went all the way to Ajah axis of Lagos (more than 50 kilometres away) to go meet his brother-in-law, a transporter, to get cash while transferred money into his account. The quest for cash literally turned men and women into beggars.
But then, it was also not easy for banks as their premises were in some instances vandalised by angry customers and their premises as they also got their due reward from angry customers. We saw in a viral video how the staff of Zenith Bank had to exit the premises by climbing over the fence at the back of the building, to escape the wrath of customers that massed up in front of the bank, demanding for their money. Some male and female customers stripped themselves to their boxer shorts and undies, to pressure bank staff to give them cash. A native doctor came into the banking hall with his paraphernalia to scare the bank staff to release his money. Not even the 31 December cross over night could be compared to the huge number of people that crowded at the entrance gates of Bank premises, shoving and pushing to get in at the same time. In all these struggles, the masses starved of cash learnt to live and survive without cash. The scarcity of naira notes left many unable to satisfy basic needs.
The women traders in the market devised various means to cope with the times. Some appointed POS operators to receive payments for them. Some boldly applied and got their own POS machines to ease the tension occasioned by failed transfers. In uncountable instances the machines rejected some transactions or the transfers were terminated into the accounts of the merchants after debiting the buyer. Such instances set off arguments and email communications with the customer care units of the banks or cash transfer companies.
Some other families found ways to deepen relationships with the neighbourhood shopkeeper. One of them, Johnson, who lives in a private housing estate in Ikotun area of Lagos opened a book of records kept by the shopkeeper. Johnson would transfer up N10, 000 into the shopkeeper’s account. The househelp would then go to the shop to take whatever was required (milk, bournvita, bread, satchel tomato, etc) and the items taken were written down in the book and signed. When the amount ran out, Johnson transferred a fresh amount and the family continued living. He also bought foodstuff in bulk, which allowed him large amounts. In various way, different families adopted different strategies and measures to cope with cash crunch. They became more prudent and were determined to hold onto any cash they got for the petty things they certainly needed, such as groundnut (N50), fish, okra, vegetables, etc.
Dear Nigerians, God alone deserves the glory for our survival of the cash crunch, because at some point it was as if the country was about to descend into civil unrest as witnessed in Benin (Edo State) and Sagamu (Ogun State) where irate customers ransacked and burnt bank branches, to express the depth of their frustration and anger over the cash crunch.
All in all, let us not forget the essence of the Easter. President of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints, Russell M. Nelson, captured it this way: “As we celebrate Easter, my thought is lingered on forgiveness. As Christ was being crucified on the cross of Calvary, the Redeemer of all mankind uttered these timeless words: ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.’ How is it possible that at the time of His excruciating agony, Christ asked his Father to forgive his tormentors? Christ did exactly that by practicing what He preached. He taught us to love our enemies, do good to those who hate us and pray for those who despitefully use us. Let us imbibe the teaching of Christ and forgive each other including our leaders.
Happy Easter.
