By Eric Elezuo

More than one week after the apex Supreme Court ruled that the old N1000 and N500 notes be allowed to exist side by side with the newly redesigned notes, President Muhammadu Buhari and the Central Bank governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, have remained silent, and unable to give Nigerians the directives to follow amid prolonged suffering occasioned by the cash crunch.

On March 3, 2023, after a long drawn legal battle between some state governors against the Federal Government, the Supreme Court had ruled that the validity of the N200, N500, and N1,000 Naira notes be extended till December 31 when they would have been easily eased it.

A seven-member panel of the court led by John Okoro unanimously directed that the CBN must continue to receive the old notes from Nigerians, stressing that the directive of President Muhammadu Buhari for the redesign of the new notes and withdrawal of the old notes without due consultation is invalid.

Reading the lead judgement, Emmanuel Agim, a member of the panel, also condemned the President’s disobedience of the court’s February 8 order that the old N200, N500, and N1,000 notes should continue to circulate alongside the new ones.

He said the president’s broadcast of 16 February that only N200 notes should remain legal tender made Nigeria’s democracy look like a mere pretension while democracy is replaced with autocracy.

He said: “It is not in doubt that the President refused to comply with the order of the court that the old 200, 500, and 1,000 naira notes should continue to be legal tender,” the court said.

“Interestingly, there is even nothing to show that that the President’s directive for the release of N200 notes was implemented.

“I agree that the first defendant ought not to be heard when the president has refused to obey the authority of this court.

“Disobedience of order of court shows the country’ democracy  a mere pretension and now replaced by autocracy. This suit is meritorious.”

Recall that the CBN in October 2022 introduced what many has labelled a controversial monetary policy which birthed newly redesigned 200, N500, and N1,000 notes with tight deadline to mop up the old notes from circulation. A January 31 deadline was initially set for the complete mopping up of the old naira notes. The policy and its implementation was challenged at the Supreme Court.

As envisaged, the policy led to scarcity of currency notes, bringing untold hardship to millions of citizens in an economy significantly driven by the informal sector with a large proportion of unbanked persons.

The end of January deadline initially set for ending the legal tender status of the old Naira notes was extended to February 10 as the supply of the new notes fell far short of the volume needed by citizens to meet their most basic needs across the country.

On February 3, three state governments – Kaduna, Kogi, and Zamfara – citing the hardships the continued scarcity of naira notes brought to their people – sued the federal government at the Supreme Court for a reversal of the policy.

Five days later, the court issued an interim order suspending the implementation of the deadline set by the federal government, and directed that the old and new Naira notes should continue to circulate pending the resolution of the case.

Unmoved by the court’s order, the CBN insisted that the old notes had stopped being legal tender after the February 10 deadline while the scarcity of the new notes persisted.

But the final judgement of March 3, which allowed the old naira notes back into circulation has been kept on mute mode by the executive as neither the president or the CBN governor has given a clear cut directive as to the next step to take. This act has returned the masses to the pre-judgment era and money has remained scarce and standard of living a total mirage, especially for families that depend on daily transactions to make a living.

At various banks across the country, customers line up endlessly to collect cash, but are disappointed at the end of every day. A cross section of the customers, who spoke to The Boss, lamented that appearing at the banks has remained a daily routine, and after each day, it remains a tale of woe as the much sought after naira notes are nowhere to be found.

But some customers, who were able to get access to the bank vaults lamented that they were paid the old bank notes, which in rejecting tried to lodge it bank with the bank. But the banks themselves rejected it.

“So the old bank note is just good to give to the customer, but cannot be deposited in the banks,” an angry customer lamented. Those that risked taking the money to the markets or to buy one thing or another are still telling sad stories as its rejection remains paramount. Yet, Buhari and Emefiele have remained silent.

“I don’t understand why Mr President and CBN governor would keep silent this long on a matter this sensitive. Yes, the Supreme Court has ruled. Am I the executive that will execute the judgement? Is it no longer the duty of the executive to execute judgements of the courts?” Another customer querried.

In the same vein, DailyPost reported that a public analyst and economist, Dr. Charles Imole expressed dissatisfaction over the continued silence from President Muhammadu Buhari and the Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Godwin Emefiele days after the Supreme Court judgment validating old Naira notes till 31 December.

According to Imole, the economic situation showed that the nation is drifting aimlessly.

“The Supreme Court gave a verdict and 5 days later, nothing has been done to officially give effect to that verdict by the President or the CBN Governor. What kind of nonsense is this? The nation just appears to be drifting and coasting aimlessly. How long will this madness continue?” He tweeted.

Meanwhile, The Punch gathered on Friday that cash had dried up in most banks in Lagos and Ogun states due to what senior bankers described as the inability of the CBN to supply them with new naira notes.

It wrote: “A branch manager of a Tier-1 bank told Saturday PUNCH that his branch last received cash last week Tuesday, adding that bankers were also frustrated about the currency crisis affecting the nation.

“The Lagos-based branch manager said, “There have been no supplies of new naira notes to my branch and other neighbouring branches this week. The last supply we got was N5m last week Monday and another N5m the following day. Members of our bullion van team have been on standby throughout this week awaiting signals to come to the CBN to pick cash, but there has been no signal. The N10m we got last week didn’t last up to Wednesday.

“Following the Supreme Court judgment, we were initially paying out the old N1,000 and N500 notes deposited with us and which had not been deposited with the CBN to desperate customers, but we had to stop when the customers came back to complain that people were not accepting the old notes from them.”

“Another senior banker corroborated this, adding that his first generation bank had not been supplied new naira notes to disburse to customers.

“He said, “Even me as a banker, I can only boast of N100 as I am speaking to you. We have not been supplied with cash this week. The Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Instant Payment platform is not working; the digital payment systems are overwhelmed. When you see crowds at our branches now, we are not giving them cash, what we are doing is to deal with complaints arising from digital payments.

“I think it is deliberate not to supply naira notes to the banks because the government and the CBN don’t want politicians to mop them up. Politicians are desperately looking for cash to pay their agents now. I know of a candidate for the Lagos State House of Assembly, who has launched a passionate appeal to his friends to raise money to pay his party agents, who were not paid after the presidential and National Assembly elections and threatened not to take part in the governorship and state House of Assembly.”

It is still not known how much longer Nigerians will be made to go through the sorrow of naira scarcity or how much longer their patience will linger as reports of unavoidable deaths, illnesses and many other vices have made the rounds as a result of the naira scarcity, and Buhari and Emefiele’s undignified silence.