FEMI ADEOTI COLUMN
The trust deficit of this reigning regime is quite huge. It is mounting by the second. You dare not quantify it. That will be costly futility. It’s somewhat damning. Even more calamitous, it is not abating. Rather, it’s climbing on to the rooftop. And with the speed of light! This is ruinous. Who can stop the catastrophe? It’s monstrous. The more we inch closer to May 29, 2023. The harsher and tougher life becomes. The nearer we think we are, the farther it becomes.
These past horrible weeks! Perilous times all the way, heavily laced with land mines. Speechless, overwhelmed couldn’t describe it. They meant their evil business. They bent us we did not break. It’s our solid resolve not to be cowed by these little minds. We denied them that privileged luxury. And it pained them to the marrows. We could see that all over them. We could feel it in their body language, actions and inactions. They almost snuffed life out of us.
They choked us. We refused to cave in. We were really brought down. But, we’re still standing. From the blues, naira woke up from its deep slumber. So, naira could be this sought after? It became “strong” against itself. Courtesy: Godwin Emefiele’s Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Imagine, naira gaining strength against naira! It has never been heard of in any economy but ours. That’s the saddest takeaway form Emefiele’s naira renovation.
We bear the brunt. It is heavy and unbearable. Nigerians are buying money to spend money. Yet, our aspiring leaders maintain closed eyes. They elect to keep mum to themselves. See how deadly they pursue their misplaced priority. Their parochial focus: Aso Rock or nothing. The reason they continue to soar in gaffes, errors, missteps, goofs et al. Ours is one wild, weird world. We have an equally bizarre, eccentric economy. Stranger than fiction! That’s how rotten and deep we have sunk. From the infamous “top to bottom.” And the end appears not in sight.
Our greatest undoing: We have never planned for what we plan to do. Our policies are without foundation. They’re rolled into emptiness. They fall flat as speedily as they are churned out. And become empty thereafter. We somersault at will. So be it with this Emefiele’s naira restructuring. They never planned for it like its predecessors.
Sampler: CBN first introduced a cashless policy in January 2012: “To encourage electronic-based transactions and reduce circulation of physical cash nationwide.” It was piloted in Lagos. Nothing again was practically and feasibly heard of it. Nine years later, it emerged. This time, it carried the label of e-Naira. CBN organised its launch and activation on October 25, 2021.
It was an uncommon jamboree in every department. Buhari was actively involved in all of this. Emefiele made him to do it with funfair and fanfare. Its slogan: “Same Naira, More Possibilities.” The carnival ended there. It silently receded into oblivion. That laid the booby traps for the naira renovation. Without reviewing the past, CBN blindly launched into the future.
Pity, these past excruciating weeks. They reduced us to utter nullity. We moaned. We groaned. For the initial 100 days, CBN was not there for us. And we didn’t miss it. It failed all the tests, written and unwritten. It couldn’t even meet goals set for itself under no duress. It watched with glee, amazement and amusement. Our predicament was their entertainment. They enjoyed it when it lasted. The POS operators connived to skin us. They feasted on us with relish. It was like never before. They inflicted injuries on us for no just cause. We never bargained for their onslaught. It was deadly and devastating. Worse still, it’s on going. The greedy bankers also took their pound of flesh from us. They found ready allies in our voracious politicians. Jointly, they did us in. They kept the new notes from our poor reach. The wads of new naira landed effortlessly on the laps of the privileged. You could see them displayed carelessly in parties and the like. With that, they laugh us to scorn.
One odd character stood out in this play-out. No contention. Emefiele is it! He is the ever-curious recurring decimal. He is the face of the CBN’s notoriety. What he could not fix in 100 days, he strived to rectify in 10 days. Sadly, Buhari urged him on. They have been in it together since 2015. The President couldn’t have backed out now. He came out forcefully and boldly to fortify Emefiele. Buhari vowed to a depressed nation: “I will revert to the CBN and the Minting Company. There will be a decision one way or the other in the remaining seven days of the 10-day extension.”
That vow expires tomorrow. The issues involved are still nagging. They still left many things undone; doing the wrong. The Supreme Court has stopped all that. It put its heavy spanner in the works for Emefiele yesterday. At the critical eleventh hour, the court collapsed his policy on his head. That is the costly price you pay for indecision. Let Emefiele lick his self-inflicting wounds all alone. This is their disgusting template. You jump up from the bad side of your bed. That is after having nightmares all through. And you want to implement a policy you least prepare for. Not even remotely!
That has been their practice. Agreed. You want to mop up funds to hurt vote-buyers. Why now? Reason: Buhari is no longer on the ballot paper. He was in 2019. That time was not auspicious. No, not conducive for naira renovation. No sincerity of purpose. It’s all about self. We still have N5, N10, N20, N50 and N100. They are the lowest denominations, not under repairs. Politicians will not want to spend or even touch them. They don’t need them. They may not have seen the lowest notes in ages. This is the right time to push them out to us. In large quantities too! We desperately need them now for our survival. We will gladly embrace them.
The holy book attests: Matthew 22 verse 22 (NIV): “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” Let the greedy have the N200, N500, N1,000 notes to themselves. And these come handy for their vote-buying agenda. Let the gluttonous politicians hold on to the highest notes. We are contented with the lowest. We must live. And live in satisfaction. Not in apprehension. That’s our priority. Currency change is never strange to us. We did it before in 1973 and 1984. That of January 1973 was very profound. It was a complete overhaul. We moved radically from metric to decimal. The major unit of currency then used to be £1. It gave way to one naira, equivalent to 10 shillings. The minor unit was replaced by kobo. It made it 100 kobo to N1.
The transition was almost seamless. No major hitches or even hiccups. General Yakubu Gowon was its conductor. The exact opposite was the case in 1984. Buhari presided as military Head of State. We were made to change the notes within 12 days, May 6, 1984. It was chaotic from start to finish. Monies were lost and lives wasted. Why do we refuse to pick useful lessons from our ugly past? We won’t stop asking: What exactly happened to e-Naira? It faded away the very way they banged it on us. Many didn’t even understand what it meant. And how it was supposed to work. We insist: Emefiele should have stuck to his guns. He couldn’t have crashed the way he did yesterday. But, he couldn’t sustain the steam.
Poor him, the odds submerged him. He caved in when it mattered most. His is an enormous leadership deficiency. Glaringly, the extension was unwise, unnecessary. It only worsened and widened our woes. He got things thoroughly messed up. We paid heavily for CBN’s gross errors. They meant evil for us. Our unpleasant takeaway: Naira is strong again! It’s waxing stronger against itself. And there’s no stopping it. Are we not laughable? Yes, we really are!