Just a few days to the February 10, deadline when the old naira notes of N200, N500 and N1000 denominations will cease to be legal tender and effectively give way to the new notes; a lot of interest groups are at each others jugular over whether the date should be extended further or not.
On the one side are mainly governors of the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC, comprising of governors El-Rufai of Kaduna State, Yahaya Bello of Kogi, Bello Matawalle of Zamfara and governors o Ondo, Imo and Kano are alleged to be in favour of extension of deadline, While some political parties such as; Action Alliance (AA), Action Peoples Party (APP), Allied Peoples Movement (APM), and National Rescue Movement (NRM), together with a coalition of public interest lawyers as well as some the Ethnic Youth Groups, an organisation of Arewa, Ohanaeze, Oduduwa youths are on the other side.
All have taken their pleas to the court to either compel the CBN to further extend the February 10 deadline or restrain the apex bank from extending the deadline or interfering with the date.
Governors El Rufai, Bello And Matawalle had dragged the CBN and the Federal Government to the Supreme Court, seeking a halt to the full implementation of the naira redesign policy initiated by the apex bank.
No date has yet been fixed for the hearing of the suit which is coming four days after the governors of the All Progressives Congress met with the President where they complained about the hardship occasioned by the currency policy.
Buhari had reportedly asked them to give him seven days to address their complaints, but not patient enough to wait for the president’s promise, the governors on Monday headed for the Supreme Court to stop the policy.
The applicants in the suit were the Attorneys-General and Commissioners of Justice of Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara, while the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, was the sole respondent in the matter.
However, in a twist of event, in an order handed down on Monday to Justice E. Enenche , a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory has restrained President Muhammadu Buhari , the CBN, its Governor Godwin Emefiele and 27 commercial banks from suspending, stopping, extending or interfering with the currency swap terminal date.
In a suit marked FCT/HC/CV/2234/2023, the court temporarily restrained the CBN from extending the deadline on the use of old naira notes.
The plaintiffs in the suit are Action Alliance (AA), Action Peoples Party (APP), Allied Peoples Movement (APM), and National Rescue Movement (NRM).
Specifically, the court, in the ruling delivered by Justice Eleojo Enenche, held: “An order of interim injunction is hereby made restraining the defendants whether by themselves, staff agents, officers, interfacing banks or whosoever not to suspend, stop, extend, vary or interfere with the extant termination date of use of the old N200, N500, and N1,000 bank notes being 10th day of February, 2023, pending the hearing and determination of motion on notice.
“An order is hereby made directing the heads and chief executive officers, managing directors and/or alter egos of the 4th to 30th Defendants to forthwith show cause as to why they shall not be arrested and prosecuted for the economic and financial sabotage of the Federal Republic of Nigeria by their alleged act of hoarding, withholding, not paying or disbursing the new N200, N500 and N,1000 bank notes, being the legal tender of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to their respective customers, despite supplies of each of such currency notes by the 2nd and 3rd Defendants, thereby leading to the present currency note in circulation”.
The court held that the interim orders would be for initial period of seven days, even as it adjourned the matter till February 14 for hearing.
Aside from President Buhari, the CBN and its governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, and 27 commercial banks were cited as Respondents/Defendants in the matter.
A coalition of public interest lawyers also asked the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN not to succumb to “selfish” politicians who are worried about losing elections.
Speaking in a statement on Tuesday, Tochukwu Ohazuruike, convener of the coalition, said those seeking extension are pretending that it is in the interest of Nigerians.
“We hope CBN obeys the court order and ensures that the February 10th deadline remains sacrosanct. No more extension will be tolerated. CBN has operational and monetary policy independence,” Ohazuruike said.
The coalition spoke while reacting to a verdict of a high court in the federal capital territory (FCT).
Earlier, the CBN governor had maintained that the apex bank would not extend the deadline for swapping old naira notes with the newly redesigned ones, adding that the CBN and other stakeholders were already addressing areas where there were pressures.
Some prominent Nigerians, including Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki, the Peoples Democratic Party presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and his Labour Party counterpart, Peter Obi, Senator Ben Bruce and Accord Party Chairman, Mohammed Nalado have expressed their support to the CBN policy.
But on Sunday, the Governor of Yobe State, Mai Mala Buni, lamented that people in the rural areas in the state were finding it difficult to get the new naira notes.
This, the CBN has assured that it was tackling.