Flashpoint: Still On New Naira Notes And Matters Arising

The controversy over the new naira notes is still raging. The decision of the Supreme Court that all parties should maintain the status quo seems to have calmed some frayed nerves in the country.

All of a sudden we have emergency lawyers giving an interpretation of the Supreme Court judgment. One funny thing about our lawyers is, ask five lawyers to give you an interpretation of any judgment. They will give you answers based on their political leanings.

Recall that the governors of Kaduna, Zamfara, and Kogi had taken the federal government to the court over the scarcity of the new notes and the hardship of the citizens.

Sadly, the suffering in the land had not subsided. people are still sleeping in ATM queues, bankers are scaling the fence to avoid being lynched by angry customers. Banks are closing early to avoid being attacked.

Some major banks’ reputations really tanked during this period. We just realized we were overrating most of them. After this crisis is over, they have to work extra hard to regain their reputation.

If transfers and POS transactions are going easily, it would have gone a long way in ameliorating the sufferings of Nigerians.

Some fuel stations have even stopped POS payments. The new trend now is that they will direct you to a nearby POS agent in the fuel station. Some charge as high as N4000 to get N20,000.

Trust an average Nigerian to milk his fellow citizens at any given opportunity.

Some good has also come out of this. Policemen standing on the road and asking for “anything for the boys “will stop. You don’t expect me to stand 5 hours in the queue to get 5k and I will now give a policeman on the road one thousand or five hundred. Maybe they will start accepting N50. What will N50 buy in this country presently?

I have seen Suya sellers and orange sellers with POS machines now. Very soon commercial sex workers and security officials on the road will start walking around with the POS machines.

While all this is going on some are still playing politics with the sufferings of Nigerians. Life is beyond elections and I noticed that most people supporting the deadline are folks who think the policy will help their candidate win the presidential election. So after the elections what next? I have often argued that no Nigerian is seeking to be president for altruistic purposes, but all for interests. I am yet to be convinced that any of the candidates want to be president because he loves the poor masses in the country.

No doubt, the CBN policy is a good policy but the problem most people are having with it is the timing. My problem is the obsession with the deadline before the election. The thinking is that it will limit vote buying in the elections. But will it stop vote buying? I don’t think so. Trust Nigerian politicians to always look for ways to circumvent the system. It’s their stock in trade.