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Like most Nigerians, I have been brutalized by the naira redesign/fuel crises. After speaking King’s English at a Foodco store where I purchased bread last week, I was brought back to earth at Orita Challenge market, Ibadan, where I couldn’t buy fufu simply because I had no cash. Ordinary fufu o! But then, while recognizing that the CBN’s naira redesign policy has been poorly implemented and while holding no brief for Godwin Emefiele, I refuse to endorse the emergency champions of public good who kept eerily quiet as the masses experienced sheer horror in the last eight years. Just last year, students were home for eight months but the political buccaneers ruling the airwaves now did not budge. Students being home didn’t threaten their ambition. Nor did the carnage unleashed by terrorists of all hues on law-abiding citizens. They kept mute when Nigerian youth were gunned down in Lekki.
But because of the huge cash still stashed in their hood, they have unleashed venom on Emefiele, intent on utilizing the cash to buy votes. I have heard that some judicial jagudas (bandits) still have bags of cash stashed away in their homes. Regardless of the poor implementation of the policy, it is clear that the politicians aren’t opposed to it because we are suffering. No. They are opposed to it because it will cripple their “see and buy” tactics at the polls scheduled to begin on February 25!
Besides, while the CBN may have failed to make enough cash available, mounting evidence indicates that the banks have engaged in pure sabotage. In this connection, let me say that President Muhammadu Buhari has been criminally indecisive. No bank manager would have pulled the kind of stunt we’ve seen in recent days under Sani Abacha or Olusegun Obasanjo! A group called the Association of Corporate Affairs Managers of Banks (ACAMB) and led by one Rasheed Bolarinwa even had the temerity to “affirm without any equivocation that banks are not in any way hoarding or holding back naira notes or engaging in any act inimical to our avowed commitment to exciting customer experience.” Folks, some people need to be clamped in jail! Only last week, operatives of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) discovered N258m stashed in a vault at the head office of Sterling Bank in Abuja. The bank claimed that the cash was the remnant of what the CBN had given it for onward distribution to its branches, but the ICPC team found out that only N5m each was distributed to the various branches.
This is the situation in nearly all the banks. While some simply refuse to load available cash into the ATMs, others load the ATMs but keep the notes in wraps, making them impossible to withdraw. The Branch Service Head of Stanbic IBTC Bank, Deidei Branch, Abuja, was taken into ICPC’s custody for her deliberate refusal to load cash into the branch’s ATMs even when the cash was available, and with long queues at the ATMs. In another incident, an Operations Manager of “a leading commercial bank in Abuja Central Area” was arrested by EFCC operatives for refusing to load the ATMs of the bank despite having N29 million of the redesigned notes in the branch’s vaults. EFCC’s spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren, said before the suspect was whisked away for further questioning, the operatives ordered the loading of all the ATMs and the payment of the stipulated amount across the counter, to the delight of the distraught customers who had spent hours on queues.
Have you seen the video of CBN officials who discovered N6 million of the new notes at a branch of Sterling Bank Plc in Ado Ekiti? In the trending video, a man identified as a deputy director at the CBN, is seen asking the bank officials why they had not loaded the funds into their ATMs despite having six machines!
Here’s what President Buhari should do: he should ensure that the CBN makes enough new notes available, lock up all erring bank mangers, and roll out an Executive Order on the old notes. He should not listen to the vote thieves.
The shameful treatment of Jandor in Lagos
All people of good conscience must be disturbed by the ceaseless attacks on the PDP governorship candidate in Lagos State, Dr. Olajide Adediran (Jandor) and his deputy, Ms. Funke Akindele. Wherever Jandor and his deputy have gone to campaign, they have been brutalized by hoodlums. On the one hand, the ruling party in the state says that the duo are mere political ants; on the other, they feel threatened by their campaign. Strange. And then amid the assault, the Works and Housing minister, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), made a spectacularly wayward, invidiously arrogant claim that Jandor being an ex-camera man can’t be governor yet. Fashola seems to be ruled by the same demons tormenting his boss.
In case Fashola needs reminding, Ronald Reagan was an actor, and the best ever governor in the history of Lagos, Alhaji Lateef Jakande, was a reporter. And so was Chief Segun Osoba, ex Ogun governor. The fact that lawyers have enjoyed undue elevation as governors since 1999 doesn’t make them intellectually superior to anyone. Besides, if indeed Jandor was a cameraman, that only proves that he had a decent job and has done well for himself.
Going by his CV, Jandor is well educated and, in any case, he is superior to the agberos who rule Fashola’s Lagos. David, the greatest king in the Bible, was a mere shepherd. It is Almighty God that elevates men. Fashola as Lagos governor was fantastic, but he has been dross ever since. Whether or not Jandor wins the 2023 governorship poll, Cameraman Fash just elevated him in my sight.
Re: Ademola Adeleke and the Osun mandate thieves
Dr. Awolaja, as you said you have a Ph.D. Please do you know what is over voting? Don’t let hatred rule your heart, be objective in your writing; don’t practice yellow journalism. Sir, maybe you will appear as his lawyer at the Appeal Court, more attorneys are needed. Were you around in1993? The first election was won by Adeleke, Ademola’s brother, because of over voting recorded in Ikirun, the hometown of Isiaka’s opponent. Please write objectively; why do you need to refer to Tinubu? Yoruba! We are our enemies. It is shameful. I am not saying you shouldn’t criticize but do so as a Christian because you are also not perfect. Bi oke Badan o ba gba malu kise enu alagbase. Bi aran ni nise eru afi tomo je. If you are offended, forgive please. Kola Aj. (08033843961).
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