The Supreme Court on Wednesday temporarily stopped the withdrawal of old Naira Notes from Feb. 10..
The court granted the order of interim inunction, restraining the Buhari government, Central Bank of Nigeria and commercial banks from suspending the old naira notes and stopping them from being legal tender by 10 Feb, pending the hearing and determination of the motion for interlocutory injunction which shall be heard on 15 Feb 2023.
Some APC governors took the FGN, CBN to court, when it was clear they were not going to listen to voices of reason about extending the deadline for the swap of old naira notes with new ones.
Up till now, Emefiele had only distributed N300 billion Naira to the banks against the N1.9 trillion received by the banks.
Before the new notes were introduced, N3.3 trillion was in circulation.
This explains why the ATMS don’t have money and our people cannot withdraw money, leading to unrest in some part of the country. It explains the scarcity of the new notes countrywide. The truth is that Emefiele has not printed enough notes to match the N3.3 trillion in circulation.
It thus does not make any sense for Emefiele to insist that February 10 deadline must be observed. It is sheer madness on the part of the monetary authorities. In other saner climes, the currency swap is done seamlessly for a period not less than 12 months. Why was Emefiele insistent on punishing our people over their money?. He should search his conscience and return to the drawing board along with his conspirators.
Tags
Opinion