One Nation, Multiple CBN Governors

Adeboye 'Fall My Hand'

The financial sector is easily the most chaotic of the economy today, and this is not attributable alone to the disarray currently in that sector but owing a great deal to the obvious lack of delineation between the fiscal and monetary policies.

So for a casual onlooker the Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele, has been wearing both caps for all intents and purposes. This is only a confirmation of the seeming lack of direction and coordination in the President Muhammadu Buhari government. As a result, not a few have argued that the nation is currently running on autopilot.

We are told that monetary policy refers to central bank activities that are directed toward influencing the quantity of money and credit in an economy. By contrast, fiscal policy refers to the government’s decisions about taxation and spending. Both monetary and fiscal policies are used to regulate economic activity over time. But in the last eight years, this delineation is increasingly getting blurred and confusing and the result being that you do not need to be within the presidency to feel the effect of the inter-agency rivalry which is at an all time high under this government.

The currency redesign policy has left millions of Nigeria in dire straits.  It’s hard to think of any economy in the world today where cash transactions are done like in Nigeria where a man goes about with millions of naira that cannot be traced or tracked.  So, any right-thinking Nigerian should be in total support of efforts by the CBN to build a cashless economy and reduce the amount of cash in circulation.

However, could it have been that ab initio the CBN had anticipated the level of hardship Nigerians are going through now and still went on with the policy or did they simply underestimated the magnitude and effect the policy would have on the common man?

If, as the CBN governor said, the policy was aimed at returning over two trillion naira that were outside the banking sector, and not politically-motivated, how was it that they did not make arrangements for cash swap for the ordinary people, who feed from hand to mouth, while returning the old notes? How is that over two weeks after people still can even get little cash to pay for transports to their work places or buy an apple from the trader on the street?

The sad reality is that poor Nigerians are daily being exploited on the streets by people now hawking the naira notes. How do they get their supplies? Does the CBN know that the people pay as much N700 to get N2000 on the streets? Was that the initial intention of the CBN and the president? If not, are we saying that there is nothing the presidency and CBN can do to immediately mitigate the hardship the people currently experience?

It is not enough for the presidency and CBN to claim that they feel the pain of the people yet they seem unprepared to immediately address the problem. Can it be right for Nigerians with money in the bank to go to bed every night without food for the entire family? Whatever informed the policy is simply unacceptable when you realize that lots of Nigerians are getting desperate and are prepared to do anything unreasonable just to vent their spleen.

Certainly, vandalizing and burning financial institutions cannot be the solution. Whoever does that must be arrested and brought to book. However, it behoves the federal government not to create a situation where the people get angry and desperate. How do you expect a man or woman whose children are starving and going for days without real food to react? In that circumstance, nobody can tell what the reaction would turnout to be. Afterall, a hungry man is an angry man.

For how long will the federal government appeal to the conscience of the people given that the situation is getting more debilitating and excruciating by the day? How reasonable can a hungry man be?

President Muhammadu Buhari’s approval on February 16 the continued use of the old N200 notes has not done much but at least has ensured that banks now open and dispense paltry sums that can barely transport them from their homes to the banks, sometimes as early as 4.00 am while some others sleep in the front of the banks over night. For keeping vigils in front of these banks, all they get is as little as N2000 or N5000 that can barely take them back home. How much suffering can a person get?

Meanwhile, while all of this is going on, the battle of wits between some governors, especially those of the APC have ensured that while the elephants fight, the grass continues to suffer. Perhaps, to underscore the level of infighting between the ruling party, and the presidency, some governors have since asked the people in their states to ignore the president’s directive and continue to transact business with the old currencies.

While the governors insist that their action is in the interest of the people, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) last week intercepted the sum of N32, 400,000 allegedly meant for vote buying in Lagos State. The recovery was made by operatives of the Lagos Zonal Command of the Commission. How far can the anti-corruption agency go in investigating how this fellow got over N32 million? Some governors have been paying out old currencies to people in their states. Where were these monies all the while?

What this means for a party that is seeking a re-election I do not know, but what I do know is that this certainly cannot be ideal. So, while the inter-agency strives go on, the state governors are locked in a legal battle with the federal government and the people suffer. We cannot say this enough.

Three APC-led governments, Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara, sued the APC-led federal government at the Supreme Court, demanding the reversal of the deadline set for the use of old naira notes. When the case came up again penultimate week, six other APC-led state governments and one led by the main opposition party, PDP, joined the suit against the federal government.

Meanwhile, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami last week hinted that the Federal Government may press charges against some governors led by Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna.

Similarly, the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, had praised the courage of his party’s governors who opposed the Muhammadu Buhari administration at the Supreme Court.

Mr Keyamo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, said by their actions, the APC governors were “fighting for the masses, fighting for the people to get succour” against the policy of a government that he serves as minister.

So while economic theorists teach that the CBN should regulate the issuance and management of currencies in circulation, some state governors have since usurped that role by insisting that those old notes remain legal tender within their states and any business that rejects them would have their certificate of occupancy revoked and businesses shut. Who therefore should regulate the naira in the country, the CBN or state governors?

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