.Says CBN policies worsening plights
From Okwe Obi, Abuja
The Resource Centre for Human Rights & Civic Education (CHRICED), has informed President Muhammadu Buhari of the hardship plaguing citizens.
It specifically fingered the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) new policies on cash withdrawal, scarcity of the new notes, fuel scarcity, extortion of eligible voters who are struggling to collect their Permanent Voter’s Card (PVCs) as major headaches.
CHRICED’s Executive Director, Ibrahim Zikirullahi, at a press briefing yesterday in Abuja said: “With the above revelations and statistics from the World Bank and the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), one would have expected President Buhari’s APC government to put on their thinking caps and roll up their sleeves to find solutions to the dire economic situation.
“Alas! The government, through the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, has set out on a mission to inflict more misery and hardship on the Nigerian people.
“Disturbing pictures of Nigerians in a life and death struggle to obtain the new Naira notes from banks and Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) have become commonplace across the country.
“While ordinary people do not have access to the new bank notes, provocative videos of partygoers spraying bundles of the new notes have surfaced on social media.
“Until now, the CBN and relevant law enforcement agencies have deemed it unnecessary to investigate how such large amounts of the new currency shown in those social media videos ended up in the hands of those individuals who were using them to show off, while most citizens endured long queues just to get some cash.
“CHRICED finds it untenable that while the CBN keeps insisting that it has supplied the redesigned currency to banks, the new notes have hardly ever been available in banks ATMs, resulting in serious currency scarcity.
“The situation has deteriorated to the point where unscrupulous POS operators now charge between 20 and 30 percent of any amount their customers wish to withdraw as a fee for providing cash.
“Furthermore, as online banking transfers suffer glitches and record failures, the digital channels for financial transactions have become even more difficult.
“The fact therefore remains that the CBN’s cash swap policy continues to impoverish many more Nigerians.
“When the benefits and drawbacks of the currency redesign and swap policy are considered, there is no doubt that it is a colossal failure and an unmitigated disaster.
“Criminals, money launderers, and vote buyers have taken advantage of the CBN system’s porous nature to conceal their illicit wealth, while ordinary citizens who require only little amounts of cash for daily survival have no access to the currency.
“We are in a situation where Naira is now used to buy Naira. In addition, the CBN’s unpopular policy of redesigning Naira notes is already driving honest and hardworking farmers, traders, and artisans in rural areas whose funds are all in cash into bankruptcy.
“CHRICED strongly condemns the suffering and agony inflicted on millions of ordinary Nigerians in recent weeks.
“This travails are the outcomes of the CBN’s sloppy implementation of the currency redesign and swap policy (CBN).
“In a previous intervention, CHRICED warned that if the apex bank does not handle this policy carefully, it will cause unnecessary hardship, particularly those in rural areas.
“CHRICED prediction has proven to be correct. Not only was the level of citizen sensitization for such a significant policy low, the apex bank failed to form any effective collaboration with institutions such as the National Orientation Agency (NOA) to get the important message about the currency redesign and swap across to citizens, especially those in rural areas.
“From the CBN currency debacle to the fuel and Permanent Voters Cards (PVC) collection queues, which have nearly become a permanent feature of everyday Nigerian life, the elements of corruption and the absence of the rule of law are clear for all to see.
“CHRICED is of the view that the anti-corruption mantra, which enabled President Muhammadu Buhari and his co-travelers in the All Progressives Congress (APC) to win presidential power in 2015 and later in 2019, has now taken a back seat.
“Nigerians have seen massive corruption allegations ranging from oil theft to alleged disappearance of stamp duty revenue made against key State functionaries being swept under the rug.
“Allegations of corruption against leaders in positions of power within institutions that should be on the front lines of governance, are simply ignored and dismissed.
“A case in point is the fact that for some time, CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele became a fugitive from justice after going into hiding for nearly two weeks to avoid arrest on allegations of terrorism financing made against him by the Department of State Services (DSS).
“It defies belief that the head of the country’s Central Bank would be subjected to such scrutiny by the nation’s secret police, and the government has not deemed it necessary to determine whether the infractions he allegedly committed are true or false.
“As a result, Nigeria now has as its apex bank governor, someone whose integrity and character the State itself cannot vouch for.”
He called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), “to engage in more confidence building with respect to the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) device, which came under the spotlight at the recent Governorship Election Petition Tribunal judgement for the Osun State gubernatorial election conducted in 2022.”