Monetary policy: Group calls for Emefiele’s sack

A group, Arewa Youth For Development and National Unity, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately sack the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Godwin Emefiele, for the untold hardship of what it described as “the insensitive monetary policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria CBN under the watch of the deeply partisan Governor, Godwin Emefiele has caused”.

Briefing newsmen on Saturday in Kaduna, the National Coordinator of the group, Comrade Hamza Muhammed Haruna, he said that they are not against the changing of the currencies, “but against the insane haste and intransigence of Emefiele to stick to the unrealistic deadline of January 31st, 2023, just three days away.”

He added, “We were worried at the beginning that the three months window given for the currency swap was insufficient even if all the variables necessary for a smooth currency change remain constant.”

The National Coordinator noted that through the changing of the currency, the nation, suffers considerable deficit in banking infrastructure, saying that as a result, there is a large population of fellow compatriots in the north and especially in rural areas operating outside the banking system, who are likely to be broken by this harsh unrealistic and unworkable policy.

As we speak, he said that there is a particular class of citizens who daily conduct their businesses in cash in countrysides and rural markets and are going through a grueling experience, waiting hours unend to bank their cash, adding that in the rare chance they bank their cash, their nightmare begins all over again, for, accessing the new notes is another uphill task, exacting the same degree of difficulty as in saving their money.

According to him, “The currency swap regime started in October 2022, with a window of six months. This period is inadequate from the word go. In developed countries like the UK, this process takes a minimum of three years with the old currency existing side by side with the old one. Presently, UK is undergoing a new currency change with the demise of the longest monarch, Queen Elizabeth II.

“In keeping with tradition, the new currency bears the image of the new King Charles III. This is the UK with over three hundred and fifty banks in all the nook and crannies of Britain. Here with all our obvious deficits, Emefiele is determined to bury the nation by insisting that the deadline is sacrosanct. The signs of a failing policy is all too apparent as up till this weekend, most commercial banks were still dispensing the old notes, confirming our apprehension that the deadline is not feasible.”

He observed that Emefiele’s total disregard for calls, including from the National Assembly, to relax the January 31st deadline, portrays him as an enemy of the state and a saboteur of Buhari’s government.