By Omojowo Ajosanmi
Any public policy put forward should be to solve societal problems and any policy devoid of that (not put in place to solve a societal problem or people-oriented policy) can be tagged anti-people because a public policy must centre around issues, activities, events and matters that are for the generality of the people.
The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Dr Godwin Emefiele having believed to be cognisant of the societal problems we are faced with, introduced a policy, to redesign the Naira: an act that is enshrined in Section 2(b) of the CBN Act 2007.
CBN Asaba Branch controller, Mr.Godwin Okafor said: ‘‘Global best practice for central banks of respective countries to redesign, produce and circulate new legal tender currency every five to eight years to ensure effective currency management and achievement of monetary policy objective. The existing series of currencies in Nigeria has not been redesigned in the past 15, 19, and over 20 years, which has been long overdue to redesign.”
Emiefele had said the apex bank would redesign N200, N500 and N1000 notes, to be distributed and circulated on December 15, 2022, and by January 31, 2023 the old naira would stop being used as legal tender.
However, it was extended by 10 days to elapse February 10. President Muhammadu Buhari, despite the Supreme Court injunction that old notes remain legal tender, said only the old N200 should circulate (till April 10) with the new notes.
The CBN gave reasons for the policy. It said it would solve kidnapping and demand for ransom, which had made the country lose billions of naira. It would also curb moneylaundering,vote-buying.
According to a report by the SBM Intelligence, between 2011 and April 2020, Nigerians lost at least $18.34 million to kidnappers as payments made to secure the release of their loved ones.
Also, a report from economists in Chatham House said the Federal Government had lost an estimated $582 billion to money laundering since its independence in 1960.
It would recalled that the Naira redesign was done in 1984 while Buhari was the head of state and the policy generated a lot of controversies and created hardship for masses.
This new policy has generated controversies, making one question it all round.
For instance: a viral video showed a notorious terrorist leader, Kachalla Baleri, and some of his men suspected to be bandits, terrorising the Northwest, brandishing new naira notes and also claiming to have nearly N10 million of the new notes.
But average Nigerians are undergoing untold hardship in trying to get new notes.Thus, one can say the policy has failed in its promise of ending or curbing kidnapping.
Neither will the redesign of the naira stop politicians from buying votes if they wish. An average presidential aspirant who wishes to buy a vote has what it takes to get the new naira notes from banks. We have read and seen banks stockpiling the new notes to, arguably, sell it to those that could purchase it. It is more or less a policy of using naira to purchase naira.
We have seen banks close, staff run away and mobile transactions face a lot of problems which in turn make an average Nigerian to be at the mercy of the point of sale(POS) attendants who charge exorbitant rates before giving people the new notes.
One of the merits of a public policy is that it can solve societal problems and a policy devoid of that is nothing but anti-people. A public policy should be people-oriented and not anti-people. That is why Emefiele and Buhari should make the new notes available to mitigate hardship on poor citizens who only need money for their basic needs.