Economy: Concerned Northern Forum demands immediate sack of Emefiele over plan to redesign currency
Austine Emmanuel, Kaduna
Group under the auspices of Concerned Northern Forum (CNF), has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to sack the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, (CBN) Dr. Godwin Emefiele over the proposed plan to redesign the nation’s N200, N500 and N1000 notes.
The group made the call in a press statement signed by its Spokeperson, Comrade Abdulsalam Mohammed Kazeem, made available to journalists in Kaduna on Wednesday.
According to Abdulsalam, redesigning the notes is nothing but a sign of incompetency on the side of Emefiele, considering the fact that the country is passing through difficult times and should only welcome policies that would help facilitate its economic recovery.
He said, “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 could offer us as a solution to the above 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 servings and yet the only solution the Apex bank could offer is to redesign our currency. Indeed Mr Godwin Emefiele and his team have completely run out of ideas and now is the time to show him the exit gate.
“We are concerned as representative 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? These are some questions begging for immediate answers! 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 us in collaboration with other concerned civil society organisations from within and outside our region.
“To set the record straight, look at the current exchange rate of Naira to dollar or even pound, and you will agree with us that our currency has lost its value completely and what we need now are serious economic policies that will strengthen our naira against dollar and pound and anything short of this is unacceptable by us. Because we believe it would inflict more against the value of our revered Naira.
“The decision to redesign the Naira is obviously to empower some certain individuals 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.
“We therefore make the following demands: immediate suspension of the whole process of the new Naira design, immediate sack of Mr Godwin Emefele and his team, prosecution of those behind this devilish idea. Failure to meet our demands will lead to massive protest across Northern region and Federal Capital Territory.
