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By Dave Baro-Thomas
Many have hailed the currency redesign policy as novel, and that singular act could position the nation on the pedestal of unprecedented progress. From the blues, suck-away pits began to vomit billions of naira, over-head water tanks ooze out billions of naira, dug-up graveyards had billions of naira in place of presumed skeletons, and the billions of naira forcefully confiscated by unscrupulous Nigerians for clandestine purposes came out like Lazarus from the grave. Some terrorists became philanthropists overnight by giving back to helpless Nigerians what they had collected at gunpoint from them. Those were inarguably the wonders of Emefiele’s policy at play.
So, the intentions behind the currency redesign were top-notch, patriotic and a precursor to the Nigerian golden era, and Mr Emefiele was on the verge of being voted Nigeria’s best CBN governor ever!
However, there is a tragic turn of events as feelers from the streets rated the policy execution as a sheer disaster. Introspectively, the outcomes so far interrogate the competence of the managers of the CBN and further question its strategic function as the banks under it watch, had gone berserk and violated every instruction without immediate consequences.
With the new notes sprayed at parties, gone back to the hands of gun-wielding terrorists, hawked on street corners, sold at bus-stop but is never available across banks’ counters or dispensed through the ATMs. Yet CBN is the bankers’ bank, and Mr Emefiele and his team could look Nigerians in the face whimpering and say, it is sabotage from the banks.
With all the best brains at the CBN, the Emefiele team cannot manage the currency redesign and distribution project. Chai! Simply project management skills the young handlers of the EndSARS movement would have dispensed with near angelic precision.
Presently, see what is going on at the bank and the impacts on society. For the first time, there is a massive uprising against a financial policy with the threat of mob action, women and men are stripping naked in banking halls in demand of their money, banks properties are vandalized; trade and small businesses are crumbling like pack of cards, stalls in the markets are shutting down causing panic across the country.
So, the critical question is, did the managers of CBN interrogate all variables from the very point of conceptualization? Did the bank see through the tread and anticipate the possible consequences of not delivering this project seamlessly from take-off to finish? Were the new notes printed/minted enough to replace the intended mopped-up cash with a buffer for eventualities? Was the non-banking segment of the Nigerians in the rural areas factored into the plans? Were the number of bank branches and their capacities in the local communities considered?
In light of the above, the verdict is incontrovertible because the CBN under Emefiele brings disrepute to the nation given the colossal waste of national resources spent for capacity-building programs and training budgets that run into billions of naira yearly yet managing a simple task as currency redesign and circulation is now rocket science. The CBN should cover its head in shame at this trying moment.
Whether targeted at politicians or whoever, that is immaterial presently and does not seem to matter to suffering Nigerians any longer because no one will vote on an empty stomach or while nursing the wounds of a failed business. Sadly, what is on ground encourages politicians to buy votes cheaply because, with the scarcity of the naira in circulation, any hungry man can easily part with his voter’s card and survive with the N10,000 politicians are alleged to be throwing around.
So, Mr Godwin Emefiele, it is imperative to let the public know the quantum of the new notes printed, the allocations to the banks across the board, and why the discrepancies or shortfalls in circulation. Or has it returned to the hands of politicians who have bank managers as their boys?
It was surprising when a friend looked at me sternly and said, Emefiele looks like the Nigerian version of the Anti-Christ, but his assertion remains puzzling. Nothing Nigerians cannot spiritualize. And equally intriguing is another submission that, “who carries a dustbin on his head, gives open invitations to others to dump their dirt”.
Emefiele and his team are rudderless and cannot appropriate the enormous powers of the CBN and its strategic roles to drive the right changes.
A word is enough, and we hope, Godwin Emefiele will not go down in history as one of the most colourless CBN governors in the annals of central banking in Nigeria.