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•As inflation’ll continue to soar even after election –Experts
From Isaac Annumihe, (Abuja), Merit Ibe and Chinwendu Obienyi
Nigerians especially consumers, business groups as well as professional and trade unions looking up to Supreme Court to ease their their financial burden yesterday were summarily disappointed again as the apex court, adjourned judgement on the new naira suit to March 3, 2023.
The Supreme Court had on February 8 restrained the Federal Government from implementing the February 10 deadline for the old Naira swap with new ones, even as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) refused to shift its deadline.
The injunction was sequel to a suit filed by Zamfara, Kogi and Kaduna states governments against the Attorney-General of the Federation on February 3.
Other states including Lagos, Ondo, Ekiti, Kano, Sokoto, Ogun and Cross River have since joined the suit as co-plaintiffs.
While taking arguments on Wednesday, counsel to the Federal Government, Kanu Agabi, said the Supreme Court held that all reliefs are rooted in section 20 of the CBN Act.
He argued that the apex court has no jurisdiction to hear the suit as the action cannot commence with an Originating Summons.
He also contended that the plaintiffs did not deem it fit to drag the CBN to court as a respondent despite making reference to the apex bank 32 times in their originating summons and despite the fact that seven of the reliefs sought relate to the CBN.
He asserted that Nigerians were already turning down the old notes away and have since followed the President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive.
Agabi also asserted that by asking Nigerians to deposit their old naira at the CBN designated centres, the President was abiding by the court order and that Buhari is empowered under the constitution to veto any legislation.
Responding, the Presiding Justice of the Supreme Court, John Okoro, said, “All the suits adjourned until 3 March for judgement”.
The date of judgement is about a week after Nigeria’s presidential election which holds Saturday (25 February), and a week ahead of state elections scheduled to come up on March 11 2023.
The apex court had ordered that the old N200, N500, and N1000 banknotes should circulate alongside their newly redesigned versions pending a further hearing in the case.
But in a direct affront to the Supreme Court, Buhari, directed in a national broadcast that only the old N200 notes would remain valid, while the old N500 and N1,000 currency notes had ceased to be legal tender.
Meanwhile, tempers rose in different banking halls yesterday as customers demanded new notes from banks across the country.
Daily Sun investigations revealed that apart from the scarcity of cash (new notes), customers who used bank applications for their cash transactions were left frustrated as the glitches still continued – This has gone on for 2 weeks now.
Speaking to Daily Sun, a staff of the new generation banks in Lagos, said, “What we have here is old N200 notes. There are no new notes here and even our ATMs were not loaded with cash because we need to configure them back to dispense N200 new notes when it comes to us so that the queues in the banking halls can reduce.
Currently the queue is very long and we are having difficulties answering everyone but we are trying our possible best to please everyone here.
George Uche, a Uber driver, said, “I am clearly unhappy with the situation at the moment. First, it was scarcity of fuel, now it is cash scarcity. The leaders do not actually care about us..It is few days to elections and we cannot do cash transactions and if we do, it fails”.
Reacting to the apex bank’s judgement, the Managing Director, Crane Securities, Mike Eze, said that as long as the cash scarcity continues, the fight against inflation will be futile.
Also reacting, a lawyer and economy expert, Eze Onyekpere, argues that the order still stands untill March 2 or March 3 when the Supreme Court will reconvene to give a judgement.
“The Supreme Court has adjourned. The other things still stand in law until they reconvene on March 3 or March 2 which is the day they will give their judgement.
The implication is that the ruling they gave to maintain status quo stands. But of course, they know that the president has contradicted them. He is not showing any sign of drawing back. Their ruling is still valid in law. So, it depends on whether the executive will obey the order of court or not.
For his part, Director/ CEO, Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE), Dr Muda Yusuf, said
“My understanding is that the restraining order mandating the President and the CBN to allow old and new notes to co-circulate still subsists. The order has not been vacated. In the interest of the rule of law, my view is that the order should be complied with. Otherwise, it will be a very bad precedence.
Similarly, Dr Frank Onyebu, Chairman, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Apapa branch, argued that what Nigerians need now is for the new Naira to begin circulate immediately. “What we need now is for the new naira to be in circulation. People are frustrated by the present situation we have been plunged into.
We can’t see the new notes, even the old #200 notes the president promised to circulate can’t been seen.
I believe the ones they said they put into circulation have been hijacked.
If the monetary authority had gotten it right, the situation would not have been like this Cash should be made available to the people who need it not a few politicians.
Network is so bad, impeding transactions and frustrating people the more.
The monetary authority should put their acts together.
The court ruling is not important as getting money into circulation for Nigerians.
There is so much hardship in town. Election is by the corner, this is the time to get things right, by voting wisely and get in the right people to put things right.
