Attorneys General of 10 states have filed a suit asking the Supreme Court to set aside President Muhammadu Buhari’s directives on the naira policy.
The state governments in Suit No SC/CV/162/2023, filed on Friday, February 17, 2023, by their counsel, A.J. Owonikoko (SAN), asked the apex court to declare the President’s directives unconstitutional.
The president had, during his nationwide broadcast on Thursday, declared that the old N500 and N1000 naira would no longer remain legal tender.
Buhari directed the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to release only the old N200 while the other two denominations remain invalid.
Some of the governors elected under the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC, had kicked against the president’s pronouncement.
The governors had vowed to seek redress challenging the president’s directive.
The plaintiffs in the suit are the Attorneys General (AGs) of Kaduna, Kogi, Zamfara, Ondo, Ekiti, Katsina, Ogun, Cross River, Sokoto, and Lagos states.
The respondents are the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, SAN, and the AGs of Bayelsa and Edo states.
According to Channels TV, the plaintiffs argued that Buhari’s directive extending the validity of old N200 notes for 60 days and his ban on old N500 and N1,000 notes is an “unconstitutional overreach and usurpation of the judicial power” of the Supreme Court being that the case is already before the court.
‘Nigerians are hoarding the new naira notes’ – Central Bank Says Scarcity Is Artificial
The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has attributed the scarcity of the new naira to the hoarding of the notes by Nigerians.
Rashidat Mongunu, the CBN’s director of consumer protection, said this on Thursday, February 9, 2023, while monitoring microfinance banks in Offa, Offa Local Government Area of Kwara.
The monitoring team, as reported by NAN, first paid homage to the Olofa of Offa, Oba Mufutau Gbadamosi, before heading to Stockcorp Microfinance and Ibolo Microfinance banks.
The CBN director asserted that the redesigned notes were made available in the right quantity by the CBN, but those hoarding the notes are to blame for currency scarcity which is further worsened by the sheer number of people thronging banks to collect money almost at the same time.
“Because of the attitude of some Nigerians in hoarding the money, even those that don’t really need the money are rushing to get it and keep it, not to spend,” she said.
Speaking on the currency management cycle, she affirmed: “We have not allowed the cycle to mature, because when you issue out currency as CBN, what we expect is that the naira issued out will come back into the banking system again. But now, everybody collecting the naira is hoarding it. So, no matter how much naira we put out there, if we continue with this attitude, and the CBN [continues to] issue from now till December, it will still not be enough.”
Monguno added: “In every economy, you must have proper accountability. You just don’t issue Naira for the fun of it, you issue the amount that is commensurate with the level of activity you have in that country.”
Source: Daily Post
