CBN NAIRA REDESIGN POLICY IS A THREAT TO NIGERIA’S DEMOCRACY AND NATIONAL SECURITY & MUST BE REVERSED NOW!

A civil society organization Centre for Social and Economic Rights (CSER) has come out to condemn the naira redesign policy of the Central bank of Nigeria due to the untold trauma, hardship, pain and suffering it has inflicted on innocent Nigerians and businesses in the last couple of weeks.

According to a press statement issued in Lagos today Tuesday 7th February 2023 by it’s executive director Nelson Ekujumi, the group, “frowned at and condemned in the strongest terms the punitive, wicked, satanic, irresponsible, insensitive, provocative, threat to democracy and national security implementation of the naira redesign policy on Nigerians, which was initially applauded as laudable by even CSER in another press statement of the 29th of January 2023 when the deadline for phasing out old naira notes as a legal tender was extended till February 10 and it’s redeemable status extended to 17th February 2023”.

In the last two weeks based on our physical monitoring and observation of developments, the pains, sufferings, trauma, threat to public peace and security that this naira redesign policy has generated within the polity, has exposed to any discerning mind, that the CBN Governor Mr Godwin Emefiele and his associates have employed the naira redesign policy as a ploy to unveil their sinister agenda of inflicting untold hardship, pains and incite Nigerians to anarchy in order to truncate the peaceful conduct of the 2023 general elections.

We have watched in horror how innocent Nigerians have been subjected to unimaginable sufferings in queues at banks, ATM’s points, POS operators points, etc to withdraw their hard earned money to no avail on a daily basis and despite the extension of the deadline on the 29th January 2023, the situation has gotten worse across the country and there is no end in sight.

According the organization, what is even more painful is the exploitation and extortion generated by this wicked and anti people naira redesign policy, whereby innocent and hardworking Nigerians are fleeced of their money as they are forced to pay commission as high as N6000 in exchange for cash of N20, 000. Infact, CSER has been inundated with calls of different phases of extortion that makes one to wonder that only a sadist and a degenerate institution will be happy to see people undergo such amount of torture and suffering in order to take possession of what legitimately belongs to them.

The group stated that, “Even as we speak, the CBN is in default of enforcing and monitoring the implementation of it’s directive issued to deposit money banks via a memo dated 6th December 2022, whereby it instructed banks and other financial institutions to pay customers only a maximum of N20, 000 daily via ATM’s and that it should be in the N200 naira denomination. Till date, since about two weeks ago, customers have been unable to access above N5, 000 daily from their personal accounts, businesses are gradually winding down and dying because customers and petty traders who engage in little daily cash transactions for daily needs have been denied their legitimate money warehoused in the banks”.

By this amount of wickedness unleashed, suffering and torture of innocent Nigerians and businesses by the CBN, the little gains accruing from the advocacy of banking culture that we have struggled for over the years among our rural populace, has obviously been eroded and it is sad and unfortunate.

The traumatizing aspect of the wickedness by CBN and it’s associates in inflicting pains and hardship on Nigerians by this policy which has revealed the sinister plot of Mr Emefiele and his cohorts, is the effontery in mobilizing groups, political parties and politicians to hold rallies, press conferences and even issue shameless threats of a boycott of the 2023 general elections if the naira redesign policy is reversed and the pains of Nigerians ameliorated. We are confident that these agents of anarchy and their sponsors will fail because the victory of evil over good is just temporary.

As the 2023 general elections draws near in a couple of days, Nigerians are enjoined to take note of politicians and political parties gloating over the pains and misery of Nigerians by this policy for political capital in contrast to those who have shown genuine concerns and raised the red flag early enough as caring and respond appropriately to them with their votes at the polls.

At CSER, we sympathize with Nigerians and share in their pains, just as we urge that they keep faith with democracy and remain law abiding even in the face of this needless provocation by agents of destabilization.

CSER then demanded a total reversal of the naira redesign policy because it’s objective which was hidden has become manifest in the untold pains and sufferings visited on innocent Nigerians and businesses which is undemocratic and unacceptable, just as it called on the national assembly to immediately pass a vote of no confidence on the headship of the CBN through a resolution demanding the removal from office of Mr. Emefiele for official misconduct act of undermining national security and democracy and communicate it to President Muhammadu Buhari for executive action.

God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Thank you.

Yours Sincerely,

Nelson Ekujumi,