Category: Letters

By Peter Ovie Akus

SIR: Recall that governments of Kaduna, Zamfara and Kogi on February 6 instituted a suit against the federal government at the Supreme Court over the scarcity of the new naira notes due to the naira redesign policy. The three states said that they were worried about the effects the CBN naira redesign policy was having on their people. They urged the Supreme Court to issue a restraining order to compel the government and CBN from implementing the policy. Two days later, the apex court granted their prayers and ordered a suspension of the policy until February 15. The court further adjourned ruling on the matter until February 22 – three days before the presidential and National Assembly elections.

What baffles most Nigerians is the fact that the CBN still went ahead with its deadline of February 10, blatantly ignoring the ruling of the apex court. Now, the banks are no longer collecting the old notes from customers; instead they refer them to the CBN which only collects it from them after they have filled all manner of forms and gone through all sorts of bureaucratic bottlenecks.

Meanwhile, the new notes remain in scarce supply at the banks and the ATM machines and where available are being rationed. The POS operators now charge exorbitant fees for withdrawal of the new notes. Nigerians are being robbed of their dignity as they no longer have access to their money and can only withdraw what the banks make available to them which oftentimes are insufficient to meet their daily basic needs. Also, some banks now place all manner of charges on services which were hitherto free before the naira swap policy.

Meanwhile, the ordinary Nigerian is taking out his anger on the banks. In the last couple of days, there have been protests, killings and destruction of lives and properties. Several banks have been torched and some bankers have had to be rescued from angry mobs.

President Muhammadu Buhari’s announcement of an extension of 60 days for Nigerians to swap the old notes for the new ones is a welcome development. The CBN should heed the advice of the Council of State by making the new notes available. It is evident that the volume in circulation is insufficient. Emefiele should hold regular media updates where Nigerians will be informed on how much of the new notes have been printed and how much is in circulation including how much has been given to the banks etc. This will ensure transparency and accountability in the whole process, win the confidence and trust of Nigerians and douse the tension in the land.

• Peter Ovie Akus, New Jersey, USA.

By Makinde Agbede

SIR: The Malayalam/Indian idiomatic expression of not burning down the house to smoke out a rat is probably more apt to describe the chaotic, self-imposed political/economic crisis in the country, no thanks to the now inglorious federal government/CBN economic death tablet!

In simple terms, the expression advises to use solutions that are appropriate to the magnitude of the problem. The government and its institutions, in this case the CBN vide their cash swap policy, had on October 2022 announced the redesign of ¦ 200, ¦ 500 and ¦ 1000 notes and asked Nigerians to deposit these notes before January 31, by which time they will cease to be legal tender.

The deadline was shifted to February 10, following immense hardship Nigerians had to go through to obtain non-available new notes. The president, Muhammadu Buhari who had met severally with the CBN governor, had among many reasons, alleged that the policy was to prevent politicians who had stocked humongous amount of cash, from using same to buy votes.

While prima-facie, the cashless policy looks good; the implementation and the resultant human and economic crisis that followed made it look like the very idea is either politically motivated, incompetently put together, intentionally destined to be still birthed, or all!

In all of these, there are gladiators and of course the victims.

First gladiator is the political class – the politicians! It will appear that, this is our own new definition of home-grown democracy is where the ruling party burns its own house while opposition watches it burn to the ground with a resounding applause!

The second gladiator is the CBN, under Godwin Emefiele. With the benefit of hindsight, it will appear that the CBN governor is more of a politician than a professional banker/economist when compared with his predecessors – Charles Soludo, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi or even Paul Agbai Ogwuma, who managed the monetary policy so well during the tenure of the late dictator, Sani Abacha, when the exchange rate and general price levels remained stable!

Yesterday, President Muhammadu Buhari made another confusing announcement, allowing only ¦ 200 old note as legal tender, along with the re-designed ¦ 200, ¦ 500 and ¦ 1000 in flagrant disobedience to the Supreme Court order, further exacerbating the already tense situation and hardship of Nigerians.

The latest announcement by Buhari, in the face of deaths of citizens, not only showed his government/party’s apathy to the plight of the people, complete cross purpose actions against his own party, but full support to the incompetence of CBN and his resolve to burn the entire nation while trying to look for politicians who, by the way, have almost the entire stock of new notes.

Last of the gladiators are the APC governors, with daggers drawn against their party leadership and federal government. Already three of these governors had taken their own government to the Supreme Court.

The solution is for both the government and their agency, CBN in this case to eat the humble pie. This policy was not properly thought out and the biggest casualty is the people.

Right now, political expediency is placed at the detriment of economic/productive capacity of the nation and is akin to burning down a house to smoke out a rat. Why keep an incompetent banker who had, with arms akimbo watched the nation’s economy go down real south? The courts and the Nigerian people should rein this reign of terror in, before the next house is conflagrated!

Enough of this confusion and hardship!

• Makinde Agbede, Lagos.

SIR: In what can best be described as a classic case of apostolic zeal without knowledge, Pastor Uche Aigbe, resident pastor of House on The Rock Church, Abuja, mounted the pulpit with an AK 47 rifle to illustrate a message about fighting the good fight with spiritual weapons. The video instantly went viral and netizens raised concerns about the pastor’s actions. The police reacted swiftly and the pastor, the Chief Security Officer of the church and the policeman who gave the pastor the rifle are currently languishing in detention.

It says a lot about the quality of education in Nigeria that the pastor of the church who is presumably a university graduate (might even possess a Master’s degree) doesn’t have an inkling about the laws on the handling of firearms in Nigeria. Let us assume that the pastor doesn’t know, does the CSO (who most times are retired servicemen) not also know? Is there no one in the church who knows and could have pointed this out to him or were they all ignorant about it? Did they know but were so much in awe of him and were cowardly to point it out to him?

Nobody is above mistakes in life. But if someone had been courageous enough to point it out to him and he had done the needful, there would have been no video to put him in the trouble that he is currently in.

I blame the pastor. I blame the leaders of the church. I blame the CSO of the church. I blame the policeman who gave the pastor his rifle. I blame the laity who sat cowardly and did nothing. 

President Muhammadu Buhari not too long ago gave an order to the security agencies to go into the bush and shoot anyone found with an AK 47 rifle. Did they not hear or read about it? Ignorance is no excuse under the law.

•Peter Ovie Akus,

New Jersey, USA.

SIR: In the old Nigeria, Nigerians were law-abiding citizens. They would always love to do things that would portray them as good nationals. But one has been wondering why this has become a history today. The cause of this decadence and degeneracy cannot, of course, be far-fetched.

During this period, Nigerian leaders led by example. If a leader admonished the young ones, for instance, to always stand still whenever the national anthem was being sung, that leader must be ready to show this by example. But is this the case today? How many of today’s leaders can beat their chests, and affirm that they remember to remain motionless whenever the national anthem is being recited today?

Nigeria of today is full of disobedient young ones not because these young ones are unwilling to obey; they’re not willing to abide by the law because those who are in the position to lead the way are law breakers.

Recently, the Supreme Court refrained the Central Bank of Nigeria from implementing the February 10 for the currency swap, and gave a verdict to stop CBN from the decision to end the spending of the old naira notes owing to the fact that the apex bank had failed in its responsibility to print enough new notes to ease the stresses the common Nigerians go through each day in getting the scarce new naira notes.

Like some today’s leaders normally do, CBN did not only arrogantly neglect the Supreme Court verdict; it also threatened the helpless Nigerians to either comply with its difficult-to-meet decision or lose their hard earned money.

Now that the CBN had gone ahead to implement its February 10 deadline in disregard to the supreme court decision, can Nigerians again believe that the apex court is the last institution to rescue them from any injustice being meted out to them?

Our people in position of authority crave decent society, but are they ready to lead by example? Or, how do we explain a situation where the apex bank – without thinking of the consequence or the impact their action (disobedience) could have on most especially young Nigerians – disregarded the last order of the apex court?

What has really gone wrong in the system? We were thought in schools that there was supremacy of law, and that no one was above the law of the land. Is this affirmation still true today? 

Seeing the arrogance the CBN had displayed over the redesign of naira notes, can a teacher boldly tell his/her inquisitive students today that the law of the land is above all Nigerians? Going by what the CBN had done, isn’t the saying that some people are untouchable in this country true?

What the heads of the CBN had just done – failure to obey the order of the court to refrain from disallowing people to continue to spend the old naira notes until new ones are sufficient – was a bad precedent that needs to be discouraged if we really care to have law-abiding Nigerians in abundance.

•Ademola Babalola.

Ibadan, Oyo state.

SIR: By next year 2024, a decade to the signing of the National Health Act 2014, would have been recorded. The NHA (2014) was enacted after a long battle of advocacy for Nigeria’s health system to provide a law that can guarantee the right to health of Nigerians.

Like so many other significant laws with beautiful provisions, the National Health Act has so many beautiful provisions which unfortunately have not translated to efficiency and effectiveness in Nigeria’s health sector.

For instance, one of the progresses recorded is the allocation of one percent Consolidated Revenue Fund for the Basic Health Care Provision Fund. Thankfully Since 2019, the federal government has been allocating one percent of the CRF for the BHCPF despite this progress, the allocation of the fund have several challenges.  First is that the equity funds that is expected to come from the sub-national governments to execute the mandates of the funds across the states have not been remitted by the state governments. The non-remittance has made it difficult to achieve progress in provision of facilities, health insurance coverage and consumables at the states and local government.

Secondly, there seems to be lack of accountability mechanism in tracking the use of the funds disbursed to the states. There are still cases of Health Care Facilities demanding for down payments before attending to patients on emergencies, despite the provision of five percent emergency fund for victims of emergency. Part of the challenge in the NHA 2014, is the lack of enforcement of the certificate of standards. Under the law, without being in possession of a Certificate of Standards, a person, entity, government or organization shall not: (a) establish, construct, modify or acquire a health establishment, health agency or health technology; (b) increase the number of beds in, or acquire prescribed health technology at a health establishment or health agency; ( c) provide prescribed health services; or (d) continue to operate a health establishment, health agency or health technology after the expiration of 24 months from the date the Act took effect.

This provision is meant to eliminate quackery in the health practices. Nine years to the implementation of the Act, most health establishments still operate without certificates of standards. Some Private Health Clinics, Hospitals and Chemists operate without certificates thereby endangering the lives of health seekers. The law provides that any person, entity, government or organization who performs any act stated under section 13(1) without a Certificate of Standards required by that section commits an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine of not less than N500, 000.00 or, in the case of an individual, to imprisonment for a period not exceeding two years or both.

An improvement of the NHA (2014) led to the enactment of the National Health Insurance Authority Act 2022. The establishment of the NHIIA 2022 does not give rise to the abandonment of key provisions in the erstwhile law. Provisions such as the full implementation of the BHCPF must be given required attention. There must be enforcement of certificates of standards on all health establishments. Other provisions that should not be ignored include the establishment of a National Strategy on Health Research. The law makes provision for the promotion of health research by private and public health authorities to focus on solving Nigeria’s health priorities. Since the outbreak of Covid-19, it is expected that the committee in charge of health and information, facilitate move for adoption of home grown solutions in preparation to combat national and global pandemics such as covid-19, Ebola and diphtheria etc.

•Victor Emejuiwe,

Centre for Social Justice, Abuja.

SIR: The world has indeed experienced pandemics- the recent ones being Ebola and Covid-19. The memory of the latter leaves one cringing, as it crisscrossed the whole globe, conveying majority of its victims to the world of the dead. Up till now, the world has not recovered from the perilous grip of Covid-19. In Nigeria, Covid-19 struck hard; everyone could not guarantee their immunity against it. This probably informed the aggressive strategies and policies put in place by the government to combat the deadly viral disease otherwise, the masses would have been left to face the monster.

However, the recent pandemic in Nigeria is neither a global one, nor has it been experienced in any country in historic times: this is because its pathogen is only with us.  The pandemic – cash crunch is vectored by emefe virus.  It may interest you to know that the virus derived its name from an indigenous word (name) which literarily means to be just, fair and impartial. It would therefore be appropriate to identify it as emefe virus since the incidence of the economic disease expresses a contradiction of the aforementioned attributes.

The symptoms of this pandemic are not farfetched: weeping in the banking halls, starvation, mammoth queues at ATM points, closure of banks, customers going naked at the banks, hunger; and any other form of privation one would never wish to imagine.  Though the policy was supposedly formulated for economic benefits, it has transmuted to a gambit launched for a political vendetta.  While people are crying and experiencing grave hardship, the concerned authorities seem to have been thrown into narcolepsy.

Just as it is characteristic of any viral disease to abate at the effluxion of time, cash crunch will definitely pass away.  Nigerians have been vaccinated ever before now (not with hoax-vaccine). The people are in possession of their vaccination cards – PVCs. Nevertheless, it is highly expedient for the government to rise to the situation and abate the suffering of the populace; otherwise this parting gift will greatly asperse the image of the transiting administration.

•Oluwole Salahudeen Adedeji,

Port Harcourt, River State.

By Braeyi Ekiye

SIR: Nigerians, desperate for change of government for the better, are waiting to be told how political gladiators intend to implement their promises to the electorate and sources of funds and the judicious use of it, timelines for implementation of projects, policies and programmes for the benefit of the sufferings of 95 percent of Nigeria’s over 200 million population.

The electorate are confused about the talk of poverty alleviation, youth unemployment and a redress of it, and the highfalutin promises and clichés that offend their sensibilities, and clownish shows at podiums of political party campaigns across the nation.

Nigeria and Nigerians’ main problems today are poverty and illiteracy-crass, in every sense of the word. Parents and guardians can barely foot school fees and other bills across nursery, secondary and tertiary institutions, let alone put food on the table for their families. The soaring prices of commodities in the market are totally out of reach of most families, as they live on credit facilities, whose facilitators are on their necks.

This is yet compounded by the new naira currency policy that has finally dealt a devastating death blow on the suffering masses. The list of socio-economic, financial and political policy summersaults and contradictions of the present administration are endless. These summersaults and contradictions have put them at the risk of good health and comfortable living; the very basic necessities of life they need to live with and live well.

 The core issue of poverty and hunger should be pragmatically addressed by political parties and their candidates. They should show the electorate how they intend to reverse this cankerworm that has eaten deep into the fabrics of overwhelming majority. Except for Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Atiku Abubakar who has touched on restructuring, other political parties seem not to be conscious that addressing the National Question is the panacea to solving most of Nigeria’s problems; the peace, security, unity and accelerated socio-economic and infrastructural development of the nation and her federating units.

The incoming government should give Nigerians a good reason to have a renewed hope, not only in their government, but also in themselves, that at last, they are free; free from injustice; inequitable allocation of resources and status by government; free from self-seeking inept and corrupt governments and her officials, vendors and contractors; free from insecurity and all that is not good and proper for the good governance of a nation and her federating units.

• Braeyi Ekiye, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.