The Council of State presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday, gave their support to the naira redesign policy but with a caveat that the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Godwin Emefiele, should make new Naira notes available or recirculate the old notes to ease the suffering of Nigerians.
The hybrid meeting which lasted for over four hours at the Council Chambers, Presidential Villa, Abuja, had in attendance former heads of state and presidents. Gen. Yakubu Gowon (retd), Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar (retd) and Goodluck Jonathan were physically present while former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, joined the meeting online.
Two former Chief Justices of the Federation, Alfa Belgore and Mahmud Muhammad, were also in attendance.
Expressing support for the government’s new monetary policy, it tasked the apex bank to take urgent steps to arrest the scarcity of cash, plaguing the country.
The resolutions arrived at during the meeting were made known to newsmen on Friday by the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, AGF, Abubakar Malami, in company of the governors of Lagos and Taraba states, Babajide Sanwo-Olu and Darius Ishaku, respectively, as well as the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Chief Femi Adesina.
Malami said the two major issues deliberated by Coincil members were the level of preparedness for the upcoming general elections, which he said both the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu, and the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Alkali Baba, had assured of adequate readiness.
According to him, the briefing on the new monetary policy, including the re-designing of some categories of the naira, elicited reactions and opinions, adding that the conclusion was that the CBN should do more to ensure there is circulation of adequate cash in the system to alleviate the harsh realities trailing the policy.
He said, “So by way of conclusion, the two major resolutions that were driven, arriving from the deliberations of the Council, are one that we are on course as far as election is concerned and we are happy with the level of preparation by INEC and the institutions.
“Two, relating to the naira re-design policy, the policy stands, but then the Council agreed that there is need for aggressive action on the part of the Central Bank, as it relates to the implementation of the policy by way of ensuring adequate provision being made with regard to the supply of the naira in the system.”
Also speaking on the proceedings of the meeting, Governor Ishaku said that the most contentious issue was the cash scarcity, which had led to protests in some parts of the country, as a result of the hardships that had attended the new cash-swap policy of the CBN.
He said the Council advised the CBN governor, Emefiele, to make the new re-designed naira denominations of N1,000, N500 and N200 available by printing more or if printing would be difficult, the apex bank should re-circulate the old notes.
According to him, “The INEC Chairman briefed the Council of State on their preparedness for the election on the 25th of this month and that of the 11th of next month that they are fully prepared. Also, Inspector-General of Police briefed Council that they are equally prepared for the election and both of them gave us the details of their preparedness.
“Lastly was the Governor of the Central Bank, who briefed us on the monetary change and the monetary issues that have arisen across the whole states in the Federation and to give us the merits of that policy.
“Basically, what took more time was that of the monetary issue because of the hardship of money in circulation across the whole states. Generally, the view across the board is that principally the policy is accepted.
“Just like any new policy or any new change, at the beginning people resist it, even though it’s good, but generally it’s accepted. But the major issue across board, from all the states and most of the speakers, is that of implementation. So many views were proffered, particularly that the CBN governor should look into making sure that the new money is available in quantum.
“There were suggestions too that if the new money is not in circulation or printing them could be difficult, the old money that hasn’t been changed could be re-circulated and pumped into circulation to ease the tension, particularly for the poor people in our society, who’ll just need a little sum of money to buy their food, buy their drugs, for daily basis and they cannot even afford it.
“So the pains and the sentiments and the sentiments across the country are being expressed by different governors, my colleagues and I think, collectively, all these ideas, Mr. President was present, is to proffer solutions and advice to Mr. President and he was there physically, he was present, so I’m sure that after this meeting, a lot of things will be done, particularly in easing the monetary tension in the society”, the governor said.
Also speaking to journalists after a separate meeting with the President, President of the Senate, Dr Ahmad Lawan, said he informed President Buhari that the National Assembly had resolved that there should be no cap on currency swap policies because of the way the scenario is now playing out and how it impacts the constituents who make up their constituencies.
He said, “For us in the Senate, initially we felt that this policy in the first place is not a bad one. But we also feel there is no need for time limit. Allow the old and the new to co-exist until the old is phased out.
“So, what is wrong in that? This is not going to be the first country to deploy it that way, other countries have been doing the same thing. And to say that in three months it will be okay, it is not okay. “Especially in a country like ours where maybe 80, 85, 90 percent of the population have no access to banks.
“When Britain changed their currency, it took them over one year to change and the validity of the old remains and remains a legal tender, so why ours? We are not cashless yet and that society is cashless already and they needed even more time. “So, we should have an open-ended time but what will make it quick is for us to have more and more of the new currencies and then they co-exist with the old ones until the old dies a natural death.”
