Awka
Citizens of Anambra state are of diverse opinions over the failure of the Federal Government and the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to make any official statements concerning the Supreme Court’s ruling retaining the old N200, N500 and N1000 notes as legal tender till 31st of December, 2023.
It was on Friday, 3rd of this month, that the Supreme Court handed down its verdict, ordering the federal government to allow the new and old banknotes to co-exist as legal tender till 31 December, 2023
More than a week after that, no official statements have come from the Federal Government or the CBN, leaving the entire citizenry in total confusion and disillusion.
Our correspondent gathered that while some banks have started issuing the old notes at their Automated Teller Machines, ATM, they are however, not collecting the old notes inside their banking halls when they are returned.
According to a professor of Business Management with Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Chinedu Onyeizugbe, the silence of the government and the apex bank on the whole issue is a bad omen for the country.
Professor Onyeizugbe, who is also the Deputy Director, UNIZIK Business School, said the development has very negative consequences for the growth of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in the country.
“Go to town, you will see that many businesses find it difficult to sell. Many people now resort to places where they know them in case the Point of Sales, PoS services fail. Because it is not just about scarcity of money, the bank networks are very bad and many e-transactions fail.
“I know of a friend who was held hostage because the PoS machine failed and he didn’t have the cash. He had to call me to come and rescue him with the little cash I had. Imagine the embarrassment.
“So, it has huge implications for businesses,” he said.
Onyeizugbe said if the issue is not nipped in the bud immediately, most small and medium scale businesses will go into extinction and the implication will be high unemployment rate and increase in crime rate.
He advised the government to immediately obey the court ruling and restore normalcy so that the suffering of the people will abate.
“There is so much uncertainty and confusion in the country. People do not know what to believe again.
“If nothing is done urgently, we may find Nigeria turning upside side especially as the country is presently facing so many economic and social issues,” he emphasized.
Some residents, Dozie Egbejiogu and Comrade Daniel Okafor said the silence is not a good one, considering the hardship suffered by the people.
However, for Francis Asoanya, a Profit Center Manager, PCM, with one of the new generation banks, the silence by the CBN and the Federal Government is political.
Explaining that the CBN, which is the backbone of Nigeria’s national sovereignty and economic survival, has its autonomy, Asoanya revealed that what the state governors who took the CBN to court did was to undermine the independence of the apex bank, in violation of the Act establishing it.
“The CBN has an act that instituted it and some governors went to court to undermine the independence of the apex and by so doing, try to open a new wave of era where any individual can challenge the CBN in the court.
“The governors claimed they are after public interest but we know they did it for their selfish gains.
So, for the CBN to be silent on the matter, means that they have seen that the Supreme Court is compromised but they don’t want to come out and say it like that,” he observed.
The financial expert maintained that the CBN has the right to declare what should be a legal tender and nobody has the right to challenge that, adding that when the people support the Supreme Court and some governors to undermine that, it means that some individuals can at some point go to court to challenge the interest rates.
According to him, for the CBN to be silent at the ruling, they want to be exercise their powers without making noise about it and the Federal Government on its part is keeping quiet because they don’t want it to look like there is division within the ruling party.
He expressed support for the silence of the CBN, although he acknowledged that the people are now suffering as a result of the policy.
He said; “I expect the people to be wiser now, knowing who determines what a legal tender is.
“People should look out for circulars and other information from the CBN. They are the only people they should listen to because they alone determine what a legal tender is, not the Supreme Court.”
