President Muhammadu Buhari is currently under pressure to review the currency redesign policy of the Federal Government, a source at the villa has disclosed.
The source who pleaded anonymity said, the pressure continues to mount from some state governors and notable politicians in the country, of the need for Buhari to obey the Supreme Court ruling on the matter.
The Supreme Court of Nigeria on Wednesday adjourned the case on the naira swap policy till Wednesday, February 22 for hearing of the consolidated suits by 10 states, including Kaduna and Kogi states.
The court joined Katsina, Lagos, Cross Rivers, Ogun, Ondo, Ekiti, and Sokoto States as co-plaintiffs in the suit challenging the Naira Redesign policy.
The various state governments had, through their attorneys general, applied to be joined in the suit.
Similarly, the apex court joined Edo and Bayelsa states in support of the Federal Government on implementation of the naira swap policy.
The six states in their respective motions for joinder joined the three aggrieved states, Kaduna, Zamfara, and Kogi states that first filed the suit.
Recall, at the last hearing, the court temporarily banned the implementation of the February 10 deadline of the CBN from making the old N200, N500 and N1,000 notes legal tender.
The Zamfara, Kogi and Kaduna states had instituted the suit against the Federal Government and the CBN.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, before the Supreme Court sitting, the CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele declared that the old N200, N500, and N1,000 notes had ceased to be legal tender in Nigeria.
Emefiele who made the declaration during a meeting with members of the diplomatic corps in Abuja, said, there was no going back on the February 10, 2023 deadline for the swapping of the old notes.
Although, against the ruling of the Supreme Court, Emefiele said, the 10th of February, 2023 given for the swap of the old naira notes stood.
“The situation is substantially calming down since the commencement of over-the-counter payments to complement ATM disbursements and the use of super-agents. There is, therefore, no need to consider any shift from the deadline of February 10,” he said.
The apex bank governor revealed that some rich Nigerians are buying the new naira notes.
“Some of our leaders are buying the new notes and storing them for whatever purpose and I will not expand further on that,” he said.
He further disclosed that the optimal volume of cash in circulation should be around N700billion.
He said: “Even if we say N1trillion should be in circulation, we cannot refloat N3.7trillion into circulation.”
He said, the apex bank acknowledges the suffering of Nigerians, however, effective implementation of the policy could scrap 4% of the inflation numbers.
Nigerians are now confused and hoping that Buhari would obey the Supreme Court ruling for the extension of the validity of the old naira notes.
