The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, has described the broadcast of President Muhammadu Buhari on scarcity of naira notes as “disregard” for rule of law .
Gbajiabiamila said this on Thursday in a statement by his media aide,Lanre Lasisi
The Supreme Court had on 8 February restrained the Federal Government and the Central Bank from banning the . use of the old N200 ,N500 and N1000 naira denominations pending the determination of the suit filed by governors of Zamfara, Kaduna and Kogi implying that the old notes remain to be legal tender unless the apex court decides otherwise.
President Buhari on Thursday morning made a nationwide broadcast where he directed the CBN to circulate only the old N200 naira note for use until 10 April ,2023 saying the old N500 and N1000 are redeemable at the Central Bank.
However, Gbajiabiamila said the president erred in not adhering to the order of the Supreme Court.
According to him,
“It is not to the benefit of our country for the federal government to act in ways that suggest a wanton disregard for the rule of law. It will be better for us to strictly adhere to the court’s order in this matter pending the adjudication of the substantive suit,” he said.
The Speaker said the failure of the governor of the CBN, Godwin Emefiele, to listen to counsel caused the scarcity of the naira.
He said if Mr Emefiele had followed section 20 of the CBN Act, the policy would have gone without a hitch
“Citizens and visitors are experiencing grave and unnecessary hardship across our country. They spend hours and days queuing at banks and teller machines to receive stipends of their own money to afford life’s necessities.
“This situation is a consequence of the flawed implementation of the naira redesign policy by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). It is also the result of decisions made by the Central Bank’s Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, to refuse counsel, be guided by precedent or abide by the decisions of superior courts.”
Gbajabiamila said the “CBN has failed woefully in its statutory obligation to pay the face value of the recalled currency in the form that it is useful to the citizens whose current suffering could have been avoided.
“The current scarcity of cash is happening because the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) did not sufficiently replace the old currency it pulled out of circulation across the country. This created an artificial scarcity that put significant additional pressure on the already epileptic electronic banking channels, resulting in a near-complete collapse of trade in the country,” he said.
The Supreme Court had adjourned hearing of the governors case until 22 February.
