New Naira Notes: Nigerians, Beware Of Emefiele Gimmicks, Mediocrity, Perfidy At Play
New Naira Notes: Nigerians, Beware Of Emefiele Gimmicks, Mediocrity, Perfidy At Play
It was like drama when on Wednesday, October 26, 2022 Rights and Freedom Advocates (RIFA) like other people learned that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor; Mr. Godwin Emefiele made a release indicating CBN was ready to issue new Naira notes of N100, N200, N500 and N1000 effective from December 15, 2022, on the lame excuse of counterfeiting and following global best practice as if that global best practice was not in existence wherein he is celebrating worst Naira regime since the creation of Nigeria.
At least, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi and Prof Charles Soludo while holding sway maintained Naira to the dollar between N165-N167 until our CBN Governor Emefiele plummeted the Nation to the current level of above N700 to one dollar at the parallel market which was less than N200 when he took over.
Regretfully, the CBN Governor claimed he was changing Naira notes, inter alia because over 80% of currencies in circulation are outside the vaults of commercial banks. He was also quoted to have said “indeed, the integrity of a local legal tender, the efficiency of its supply, as well as its efficacy in the conduct of monetary policy are some of the hallmarks of a great Central Bank”.
Unfortunately, on the above, our CBN Governor shoot himself or would he claim to have led a great CBN with the worst Naira value?.
He was also quoted to have opined that significant hoarding of banknotes by members of the public led to a worsening shortage of clean banknotes as well as ease of counterfeiting the notes.
How Nigeria produced this kind of CBN Governor at this critical period of seriousness made jest of our Nation. Is it the money in circulation that is useful for business and economic growth or the one in bank vaults? No wonder, Gov Emefiele is synonymous with poor economic knowledge causing the Country serious economic woes.
In any society where Central Bank is led by informed cum patriotic citizens and sound economists, no lame excuse of changing banknotes because of a higher percentage of national currency in circulation would make sense in the public domain.
In fact, every sound economist and financial expert would have craved for a higher percentage of a nation’s currency to be in circulation for business operations. Our Governor also blamed the rate of counterfeiting of those bank notes as the basis of his policy to change the notes.
However, he failed to tell Nigerians if the counterfeiting he blamed on the Nation Banks’ cheques had stopped following his order for the issuance of new cheques at least three times since becoming CBN Governor.
It is the same Governor Emefiele who heads CBN under whose custody sensitive election materials are kept that went to court to allow him to contest under All Progressive Congress (APC) and he is still in charge till date even though was only prevailed upon to forgo his ambition.
That alone is a fact that no serious reigning CBN governor would have opted to contest for the Nation’s presidency if he has been working for the Nation’s financial and economic progress.
To avoid other political parties asking for his step aside before the election, he wanted to bribe them with new notes to buy votes or gave them other news to forget his main mission to compromise the Nation’s electoral process.,
Before now, the common joke was that something is as less as Benin Republic CFA but today, the currency is at least by 500% better than Nigerian currency courtesy of our CBN Governor Emefiele who is now celebrating his mediocrity with useless policy to dissuade attention of Nigerians. Is it the new notes that would restore the lost Naira value?
Furthermore, it was the same Governor Emefiele who dubiously sold Skye Bank to a ghost Bank in 2018. A search for Polaris Bank Limited on the website of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) as at 11:47 pm on Sunday 23rd September 2018 showed the company; Polaris Bank Limited was yet to be registered by Corporate Affairs Commission yet it was allowed to acquire a bank of Skye Bank status on the anticipatory ground on September 21, 2018.
However, surreptitiously and fraudulently, by Monday morning of September 24, 2018, at 11:02 am a strange Company; Polaris Bank Limited with registration number 1525101 was said to have been registered on 14th September 2018 leaving another Polaris Bank Limited on the page as registration in progress.
If by Sunday 23 September 2018 there was no registered Company in Nigeria with the name Polaris Bank Limited, how then did Polaris Bank Limited which came alive on Monday 24th September 2018 got registered on September 14, 2018 and yet non-existent on the CAC website as at date of acquisition of Skye Bank Plc yet CBN release claimed the new Company has a track record in the industry?
To sound economic observers, the current CBN game is to open another dubious business for partners in economic sabotage as was done for parallel market dealers who now hold the Nation into ransom. It may also be to empower those who use phony companies to take over an existing Company and this went without sanctions, Did they think we forget in a hurry those who hoarded new Naira notes and return old currency to circulation while lying they had destroyed the old mints?
So, instead of strategizing to save the Nation from its current economic quagmire, what our CBN Governor could think is how to foreclose his mediocrity, perfidy, and economic sabotage in the public domain of unsuspecting citizens. RIFA warn Nigerians to be wary of Governor Emefiele Greek’s gift by not allowing themselves to be cajoled by rejecting the new Naira notes for valued currency with better monetary policies that would revamp the nation’s economy.
Luqman Soliu
President,
Rights and Freedom Advocates (RIFA)
