Tuesday Column By VICTORIA NGOZI IKEANO
vikeano@yahoo.co.uk | 08033077519
Starved of cash, Nigerians are now as broke as a church rat. The redesigned naira notes of N200, N500 and N1000 effectively replaced the equivalent old currencies and ceased to be legal tenders after February 10, 2023 according to the CBN governor. But some governors cried foul, stating that the highest court in our land, the Supreme Court had ruled that the status quo ante should remain pending determination of the suit they filed against outlawing the old notes. Some of them directed their citizens to continue using the old currencies for transactions; some others ordered arrest of anybody or organisation refusing to accept old notes while yet others like Lagos governor told those living within its boundaries that non acceptance of those notes is an ‘‘illegal’’ act.
When in a rare national broadcast President Mohammadu Buhari extended use of old N200 note to April 10, 2023 while declaring that the old N500 and N1000 were no longer legal tenders, the governors kicked further. They literally accused Mr. President of contempt of court. They again told residents in their various states that they should freely, without fear continue to use the old currencies for all transactions because according to them, the law is on their side. Not a few legal experts also averred that as per law, the old notes should still be in use until the Supreme Court gives its verdict on the matter on February 22, 2023, the adjourned date to consider the suit. And some other ‘experts’ are telling us that subject matter of the suit is not among issues that should be brought before our Supreme Court. That is, that the Supreme Court has no ‘jurisdiction’ on it. All of these leave the masses in a dilemma. They are confused as to which of the arguments and counter arguments, orders and countermands, they should align with.
Should they obey the number one citizens of the places where they reside and eke out a living who as state governors are directing them to continue doing business with their old currencies without let or hindrance? Governor of the Central Bank who heads an institution that is said to be independent, on whose shoulders alone lie the task of directing the nation’s monetary policy and who is insisting that the old currencies of N500 and N1000 currencies can no longer be used for business transactions, effective February 10? Our president who reaffirmed the CBN governor’s position except to add that validity of old N200 is extended to April 10? Our legal luminaries who maintain that Mr. President in spite of his position as the number one citizen in Nigeria is duty bound to obey the highest court in Nigeria, the Supreme Court, which ordered according to them, that all the old notes are still valid as legal tenders until it determines the case filed before it on the matter?
However, while above scenario is of great concern to the masses as it puts them at crossroads, their greatest concern for now is that the new currencies have become rare commodities, extremely difficult to find, let alone laying hands on them. Except perhaps for the politicians, every other Nigerian is as broke as a church rat right now in terms of cash at hand. You may be a millionaire fact of the matter is that 99.9 per cent of those huge sums in your bank account are cashless, not backed with cash and so, no more than promissory notes. The rich among us whose weekly cash requirements is no less than N100,000 are lamenting that they have just N20,000 for these expenses. For the general masses however, some have no more than N5000 of the new currency to manage in a week and some others still less. And to get this little cash, has been/is a struggle. Consider this typical scenario in a typical community/town outside of the 36 state capitals that is lucky to have a commercial bank.
First you have to rise as early as 4.00a.m.to be amongst the first 50 persons on the queue to increase probability of you being served by the ATM if the bank happens to receive money that day. By sunrise and well before the bank officially opens its gate to customers at 8a.m., the crowd would have grown phenomenally. Thereafter you have to wait for hours for money to arrive. And it may well happen that after spending several hours inside the bank, an announcement is made that the bank would not get any cash for that day; then you have to go home empty handed. On a day that cash arrives in the bank after what seemed like an endless wait, you have to wait for another hour or so for the bank officials to put things in order. The ATM begins to dispense N5,000 to people on the queue; later, it is rationed further to N2,000 per person and a little later, people are told that the money is finished. There are still multitudes unattended. On the average the bank dispenses money twice a week but you have to repeat the daily routine of going to the bank in the wee hours of the morning everyday to see if money would be available that day as there is no fixed time or day when the bank would have cash. And on a day when there is no cash in the bank, no cash left in your hand and no more foodstuff in your house, you are forced out of desperation and hunger to patronise the very few POS operators still in business who charge exorbitant fees: N1,500 for N5,000 or N3,000 for N10,000. Throughout last week there was no money in the bank neither was there any POS operator in sight.
Nonetheless, new set of naira traders, profiteers have surfaced. They are retailers, including supermarkets. These are traders who buy their various products from distributors via transfer and sell the products to the final consumer via cash. They gather their cash sales for the day and sell to people desperately searching for cash, at same cut throat price, that is, you transfer to them, N5000 to get N3, 500 cash. Also, this cash scarcity has brought about two parallel price lists in the market place. For example, a 4-litre paint bucket of garri goes for N1,000 if you are paying with new naira note and N2,000 for old notes. Cashless, hungry and humiliated in the desperate search for this elusive new naira notes, such is the plight of millions of Nigerians who live in the countryside, villages.
