As scarcity of expendable cash in the country continued to bite harder, causing untold economic crisis, paralysing commerce and inflicting enormous pains on Nigerians, authorities continued to wallow in blame games instead of finding quick solutions to the problems.
An aide to President Muhammadu Buhari has come out to say that his principal should not be blamed for the crisis as he was misled by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Ajuri Ngelale, in an interview monitored on TVC News, described as false the report by the CBN that it had supplied all bank branches in the country with sufficient amounts of the new notes.
Prior to the extension of the deadline for the exchange of old naira notes from January 31 to February 10, the President had defended the CBN governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, for adopting unorthodox economic models that put people at the heart of the apex bank’s policies.
“Because the governor follows a model outside of the economic orthodoxy, he is labelled political, but the orthodoxy has proved wrong time and again,” Buhari said.
But owing to the naira redesign and the renewed cashless policy of the CBN, the non-availability of both the old and newly designed naira notes at all channels, including banking halls, Automated Teller Machine points and Point of Sale terminal operators across the country, has subjected majority of Nigerians to serious hardship, with many finding it difficult to access cash to buy basic things or transport themselves from one place to the other.
In what many have described as unprecedented in the history of the country, Nigerians now pay exorbitant charges to get the naira notes from PoS operators.
As of Saturday afternoon, in some parts of Lagos, N5,000 old notes attracted N1,000 commission while N6,000 new notes attracted as much as N2,000 commission.
However, Ngelale in the interview said: “What we are working to do is to ensure that Mr President is given effective and true information and that the report that was given by the CBN that they have supplied all bank branches in the country with sufficient amounts of the new naira notes is absolutely false and it is evidential at this point.
Meanwhile, Governor Nyesome Wike of Rivers State has said that the Naira Redesign which is the root of the crisis in the country was deliberate as it was aimed at causing riots in order to shift election.
The governor alleged that there were plots by some persons in power to scuttle the election and introduce an interim government.
Wike speaking during a campaign in the Opobo/Nkoro Local Government Area of the state alleged that the aim was to cause crises which would lead to the postponement of the February and March elections.
He urged Nigerians to remain calm despite the hardship emanating from scarcity of the newly redesigned Naira notes, insisting that the election must not be shifted.
He said, “This policy (naira redesign) is targeted at making people angry so that they will demonstrate and riot and then the election will be postponed. Then, they will introduce an interim government.
“No matter the provocation, don’t protest,” Wike cautioned the people of the state.
“This election will hold. This election is by the PVCs. This election is not an election of cabals; it is an election of Nigerians.”
In his own reaction to the crisis, the Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions was mainly concerned about his own members as it called on security agencies to ensure the safety and security of bank workers and property.
The News Agency of Nigeria reported that ASSBIFI President, Mr Olusoji Oluwole, in a statement on Saturday condemned recent attacks on some financial institutions, saying such endanger the lives of bank workers.
Oluwole stated, “We strongly condemn this act which is borne out of the propaganda against banks as the sole cause of the inability of the public to have access to cash across the country. We have seen a few videos of bank branches allegedly hoarding cash in their vaults.
“While we do not hold brief for these isolated cases or condone any verified bad behaviour, we expect the same sources of these videos to also project the many locations that have continued to provide cash to customers or have empty vaults due to the unavailability of cash. Unfortunately, we do not deem it security conscious for us to share videos or pictures of our vaults with the public as professionals.”
He said bank workers had in the past few weeks worked tirelessly, every day for long hours against the prescribed work hours, noting that such sacrifice was to ensure customers were able to deposit their old currency notes and make the new ones available for withdrawals at Automated Teller Machines.
He added, “This exercise has taken its toll on their health, work-life balance, and families while being faced daily with the fear of physical assaults by irate customers. While we assure the public of our commitment to ensure their pain is ameliorated, we appeal for calm and understanding at this time as we call on the security agencies to ensure the safety and security of our lives and bank property.”
Meanwhile, despite all the hooplas, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has foreclosed strike action against government.
NLC ruled out the possibility of embarking on strike action to compel government to find urgent solutions to the dual crisis of naira and petrol scarcity.
It said going on strike when general elections were a couple of days away could present the union as insensitive, heat up the polity and cause problems. It said Nigerians should rather make use of their permanent voter cards to elect the leaders they believe could make their lives better.
Independent of the naira notes scarcity, the prolonged fuel scarcity, which begun last year, has subjected commuters, business owners and individuals to untold misery, with people spending hours in queues, while a litre of petrol sells for about N500 in some places as against the N185 control price.
But, reacting to the dual impact of the scarcity, the NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, said, “We cannot go on strike on the eve of an election; we also cannot join retrogressive forces. We can use the power of the ballot and our PVCs to bring about a system that will make everybody happy. But if there is a call to go on strike on the eve of elections, I am not sure it is a better option.
“Things will not get better, people should be ready; we cannot change a system through lamentation. Lamentation has not changed any system. What will change the system is for the people to be wise, because this same issue we are talking about, either the fuel or the economy, has been around for the past 30 years.”
He said since the advent of democracy, promises were made but not fulfilled but that it was fruitless to dwell on that.
“Our suggestion is that all of us must work together to hold people in government at all levels accountable and this is important; from the president to the governors, National Assembly members and others,” he stated. “Everybody must be seen to be improving the system, not improving themselves.
“We cannot go on strike on the eve of the election. Have you ever seen that on the eve of elections, the NLC mobilised (people) to go on strike? So, if there is a problem now and the election did not hold, won’t you come back to say the same NLC made the election not to hold. Which is a better option? Is it to use your PVC to elect people who will change the narrative or we continue to lament?”
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