By; AMOS TAUNA, Kaduna
The leadership of Concern Northern Forum (CNF), has asked for the immediate suspension of Mr. Godwin Emefele, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor and his team.
The group also asked for immediate suspension of the redesigned currency of the new Naira design and prosecution of those behind the idea.
It said, “And failure of our demands will lead to massive protest across Northern region and Federal Capital Territory.”
The group described the redesigned N200, N500 and N1000 Naira notes is a sign of incompetency by the leadership of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), saying that the economy as a nation is down and the Naira has depreciated to the minimal value.
According to the spokesman of CNF, Comrade Abdulsalam Mohammed Kazeem, in a statement, “This to us is nothing but a sign of incompetency, our economy as a nation is down and our Naira has depreciated to the minimal value and all the leadership of Central Bank of Nigeria could offer us as a solution to the above is to redesign our currency.”
The statement noted that the redesigning of the currency would only cost the nation huge sums of money at the expense of tax payers, stressing, “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.”
As concerned as representatives of the people and region, the group asked that would the new design make the currency to gain value at the exchange rate market or will it add value to the standard of living of the citizenry of the region and the nation at large?
It stated that these are some questions begging for immediate answers and if no satisfactory answers are provided (as we already expect none) for the above questions, the apex bank should immediately stop the process of the new design or else it will be resisted by the group in collaboration with other concern civil society organisations from within and outside the region.
Looking at the current exchange rate of a Naira to a dollar or pounds, the statement explained, one would agree with them that the currency has lost its value completely and now serious economic policies that will strengthen the Naira against dollar and pounds as anything short of that, is unacceptable by Nigerians.
“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,” the statement opined.
