The Concerned Northern Forum (CNF) has called on the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele, “to stabilise the Naira or quit rather than embark on a fruitless trip of redesigning the national currency.”
According to the group, “it is the role of the CBN Governor and his team to ensure that the Naira holds its value among it’s peers and should the currency face any challenge, they should address the challenge head on. So, it is a function of the competence of the CBN leadership that the Naira has fallen to its lowest value ever and rather than find immediate solution to the national challenge, Emefiele and his crew want to embark on a waste of precious time and resources.”
Speaking in a statement on Wednesday, Spokesman for Concerned Northern Forum, Comrade Abdulsalam Moh’d Kazeem, said: “The attention of the leadership of Concern Northern Forum has been called to a press conference organised by the Central Bank Governor in Abuja, where he stated that (CBN) has redesigned the N200, N500 and N1000 naira notes, effective December 15, 2022.
“This is a sign of incompetence. Our economy is down, our Naira has depreciated to the minimal value and all the solution CBN leadership could offer us is to redesign our currency. The redesigning of the said currency will only cost our nation huge sums of money at the expense of tax payers. This is coming at a period when we are borrowing to fund significant parts of our annual budget and another significant parts of the borrowing goes to debt servicing and yet the only solution the apex bank could offer is to redesign our currency.
“Indeed Mr Godwin Emefiele and his entire team has completely run out of ideas and now is the time to show them the exit gate. We are concerned as representatives of our people and region, if we may ask; will the new design make our currency to gain value at the exchange rate market? Will it add value to the standard of living of the citizenry of our region and the nation at large? These are some questions begging for immediate answers!
“If no satisfactory answers are provided for the above questions, the apex bank should immediately stop the process of the new design or else it will be resisted by us in collaboration with other concerned civil society organisations from within and outside our region. Our currency has lost its value completely and what we need now are serious economic policies that will strengthen our Naira against dollar and pounds. Anything short of this, is unacceptable as it would inflict more damage on the value of our revered naira.
“We therefore demanded the following: immediate suspension of the whole process of the new naira design: immediate sack of Mr Godwin Emefiele and his team and prosecution of those behind this devilish idea. Failure of our demands will lead to massive protest across Northern region and Federal Capital Territory.
“The decision to redesign the Naira is obviously to empower some certain individuals, consultant or contractors who are desperate to make something before the end of the current administration, this idea should be rejected by all and sundry at any rate, since it’s not in the interest of the nation and it will add no value to the current multiple economic challenges the nation is facing due to bad economic policies of the current central bank governor.”
