Kehinde Akintola
Coalition of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) operating in Nigeria on Monday challenged the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele to publish the names of Governors and Politicians who allegedly stockpile the new currencies worth billions of naira.
The CSOs’ leaders who spoke during the press briefing on the ‘State of the Nation’, led by Executive Director of Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Auwal Musa Rafisajani; Director of Praxis Academy, Jaye Gaskia; Executive Director of Centre for Journalism, Innovation (CJID), Dr Tobi Oluwatola and Development and Executive Director of Resource Centre for Human Rights & Civic Education, Mr Ibrahim Zikrullahi, flawed President Muhammadu Buhari’s stance on the Supreme Court ruling.
In his address, Mr Zikrullahi said: “the Federal Government has said that a few Governors and other politicians are keeping billions of old Naira notes in well-known places.
“Instead of imposing collective punishment on hapless Nigerians, the Federal Government should direct security and anti-graft agencies to remove the sums of money allegedly kept in the homes and offices of the few politicians. After all, operatives of the State Security Services invaded the residences of alleged corrupt Judges in October 2016 and carted away thousands of dollars and millions of Naira.
“The CBN Governor, Mr Emefiele, has said that the billions of new Naira notes disbursed to the commercial banks have again been mopped up by the same set of corrupt Politicians. We challenge the CBN to publish the amount of the new Naira notes disbursed to each commercial bank and the list of persons that collected the billions from the banks.”
While clarifying the CSOs’ position that the crisis trailing the new naira notes was ‘politically motivated’, Mr Zikrullahi explained that the Coalition does not want to be caught in the web of the political class deceit.
“Because if the so-called Governors are serious they know what to do. If the Legislators are serious they know what to do. The Act of CBN is a creation of the National Assembly, if they are serious within 12 hours they can amend that Act, they can get Emefiele out of the office, even the President himself, and they can deal with him if they are serious.
“So that is why I am saying this is a clear deception, there may be a hidden agenda somewhere which we don’t want to play into, we don’t want to give them that ground, because, at the end of the day, they will still be the beneficiaries. We know what happened, look at the trajectory from the military till now, so that’s why we are careful in choosing the fight we want to fight.
“Not that we are foreclosing every avenue but we are first of all sending a signal for them to know that we know what they are doing and we know their deceit and this time around we are prepared for them.”
In his remarks, Director of Praxis Academy, Comrade Jaye Gaskia who lamented that Nigerian citizens are reeling from the effects of contrived fuel scarcity, insecurity of endemic proportions, galloping inflation and attendant stress on conditions and cost of living, maintained that the poor thinking on the implementation of the Naira redesign exercise has resulted into an avoidable scarcity of the redesigned denominations of the currency – N200, N500 and N1,000 notes; opportunistic hoarding and diversions by banks; profiteering practices by POS operators, filling stations and bank officials; denial to citizens of access to their funds to meet their basic needs of food and health; and, a potential threat to inclusive and participatory democracy despite the registration of a large number of voters across Nigeria.
According to him, “there are disturbing signals from the posture of the Federal Government that seem to suggest that Nigeria has a long way to go to combat the destructive culture of impunity. It is shocking that despite the provision of separation of powers in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended), the Federal Government of Nigeria has continued to treat the opinions of the legislature in various resolutions of national importance with disdain.
“To make matters worse, the Federal Government has outright refused to, and even countermand, the pronouncement of the Supreme Court on the deadline for the status of the old denominations of the Naira as legal tender.
“It is necessary to remind the government that the practice of democracy is based on separation of powers, with coequal arms of government — the executive, legislature and judiciary, with defined constitutional powers -at national and subnational levels. This separation is meant to check excesses of each arm, and guard against dictatorial tendencies through respect for the rule of law and sustenance of democracy. Tragically, the government has chosen to set a bad example of disrespect for court orders and the rule of law.
“These acts by the Presidency and the Governor of the CBN, in flagrantly disobeying the ruling of the Supreme court on the issue of the deadline for the old currency being legal tender, amounts not only to a clear and precipitate undermining of the rule of law, but also a wanton disregard for the principles of the separation of powers at the heart of our constitutional democracy.”
On his part, Mr Auwal Musa Rafisajani who frowned at the prevailing situation said: “To safeguard our democracy, and protect the working and living conditions of our people, we make the following demands that the Federal Government must quickly put in place any measures to ensure that the suffering of the Nigerian People caused by the poor thinking and inefficiencies in the implementation of the Naira redesign exercise are eliminated.
“Citizens and businesses must have unfettered access to their money – access to cash, ability to undertake unhindered transactions through both non-digital and digital platforms – without further stress to meet their obligations to their families/dependents and businesses to enable them to live with less stress in an environment where citizens are reeling from the effects of contrived fuel scarcity, insecurity of endemic proportions and galloping inflation.
“The principle of separation of powers must be respected and the Federal Government should respect and uphold the pronouncement of the Supreme Court on the old denominations of the Naira that it marked to be phased out as legal tender. It must also, in particular, make the lower denominations of the Naira available for the operations and convenience of citizens in the informal sector and small business operators who, by acts of omission of the Federal Government and CBN, have become the primary victims of the assumed well-intended Naira redesign exercise.
“The legitimate anger and concerns of ordinary citizens as the major victims of the ill-prepared and rushed implementation of the anti-people policy, must be respected; their rights to Protest must be protected, and their legitimate anger must not be met with repression. In this respect, we condemn the repression of protests, call for its cessation, and for the Prosecution of security personnel who have brutalized, shot at, and or harassed citizens in the course of the unfolding protests. > However, the right to peaceful assembly and protest should not be an excuse for the destruction of public or private property or the abuse of the fundamental rights of other citizens by protesters.
“We call on the executive branch of government, in particular the presidency and the CBN, to retrace their steps and immediately abide by the extant ruling and pronouncement of the Supreme Court on this matter.
“We call on the Presidency to uphold the rule of law, and not to take any steps that will further undermine the system of separation of powers between the branches of government. In this respect, we call for anyone who is implicated in disobeying the ruling of the supreme court to face appropriate consequences by our constitution.”
The CISLAC helmsman further observed that “Nigerians have suffered enough from the wicked ruling class in Nigeria. They come up with all forms of confusion because what is happening here is simply the real consequences against the Nigerian people. Policies that the government has been rolling out at either the state or the national level have nothing to do with the empowerment of the Nigerian people but rather undermine and punish them; and this is the reward for Nigerian people who have been obeying them, who have been respecting them.
“This is the only benefit that they are getting which is to push them into artificial poverty, artificial insecurity that they have found themselves, yet the government and other people that are clamouring for all these have never come out to demonstrate and take side with the Nigerian people. Nigerian people have been killed and massacred but unfortunately, we have not seen these interventions by the Governors,” he noted.
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