Abdullahi Shinkafi, a senior APC official in Zamfara State, has urged the federal government to abide by the Supreme Court’s ruling and permit Nigerians to use both the old and new naira notes simultaneously, Entrepreneurng report.
In essence, President Muhammadu Buhari must obey the Supreme Court’s ruling, according to Shinkafi, and permit both the new and old naira notes to circulate simultaneously through December 31.
Although, he claims that no one in the nation, regardless of rank, can defy the Supreme Court’s decision that both the old and new naira notes are still valid forms of payment. To comply with the court decision, Shinkafi urged President Buhari to promptly direct the Central Bank of Nigeria to put the notes back into circulation.
Also, he encouraged the Deposit Money Banks to comply with the court’s ruling and distribute both new and old notes.
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Shinkafi bemoaned how many Nigerians, who he claimed had been suffering from poverty ever since the implementation of the cashless policy, had been adversely impacted by the new naira notes policy. He claimed that CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele failed to provide the President with sound advice. This is not how developed nations alter their currencies.
The politician claimed that the United States of America, the United Kingdom, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia replaced their currencies gradually and methodically without setting an expiration date. In wealthy nations like the United States, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, and others, the currency has changed, but the circulation of old notes hasn’t been abruptly stopped. According to Shinkafi.
“What they often do is allow the old notes to travel alongside the new ones concurrently until the old ones finally return to the banks and are never released again.”
Again, he praised the leaders of the states of Zamfara, Kaduna, and Kogi for their tenacity, which he claimed would prevent the nation from imploding. If the President, Attorney General of the Federation Abubakar Malami, SAN, and the CBN refused to follow the Supreme Court’s order, he recommended the governors go back to court.
To immediately send to prison those actors who choose to violate the ruling of the Apex Court, he said,
“the governors have the authority to file for enforcement of form (48), a contempt of court charge, and form (49), committal to prison.”
The APC leader urged Nigerians to follow the Supreme Court’s directive and use both the old and new naira notes as lawful cash through December 31. The Supreme Court ruled unanimously earlier on Friday that the old N200, N500, and N1000 notes must continue to be used in commerce until December 31.
Nevertheless, the Attorney General of the Federation, the states of Bayelsa and Edo, and Justice Emmanuel Agim, who read the lead judgment, declared that the defendant’s preliminary objections were overruled because the court had the authority to hear the case. The lawsuit was started by sixteen federated states to contest the validity of the policy’s introduction.
In conclusion, starting from February 22, the court’s seven-member panel of justices, led by Justice John Okoro had set a deadline of March 3 for the court to announce its ruling on the lawsuit.
The 16 states, led by Kaduna, Kogi, and Zamfara, asked the supreme court to invalidate and set down the policy since it was putting innocent Nigerians through suffering.
Source: Punch
