Governors of the All Progressive Congress (APC) Thursday visited President Muhammadu Buhari to appeal to him to urge the Central Bank Of Nigeria (CBN) to postpone the deadline for the currency swap of the newly redesigned 1,000, 500 and 200 Naira notes. They also asked for both old and new notes to co-exist to ease the suffering of Nigerians.

The governor of Kano State Umar Ganduje after the governor’s closed-door meeting with the President on Friday told journalists that the president promised to look into their request. According to Ganduje, the old Naira should die a gradual “natural death”.

Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State, who spoke to a section of journalists after the meeting, said the hardship Nigerians are going through is a consequence of premeditated action by CBN. He explained that while the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) mopped up over N2 trillion of the old notes, it printed only N300 billion new notes, which he said is not enough. He said even if the apex bank had wanted to implement the cashless policy, it should have printed half of what it mopped up, for a start, which ought to be N1 trillion.

He disclosed that the All Progressives Congress (APC) Governors told the President that the masses are suffering and traders are losing their goods due to lack of patronage citing the example of tomatoes sellers that travelled to Lagos with their goods, which all got wasted because people had no money to buy. As a result, he stated that the governors had no choice but to appeal to the President to reconsider his stances.

The parley between the Governors and Buhari comes on the heels of widening hardship in the society and has reordered how businesses should be operated and people’s lifestyles. The religious bodies and institutions, schools and every other segment of the economy have been seriously affected. Businesses have not been working optimally because cash cannot be accessed and there has been general bedlam across the country as banks and their agents have been accused of engaging in the selling of the new naira notes, while their agents engage in extorting the public.

While the banks are quick to receive the old naira notes from the customers, their ATM machines are not dispensing both old and new notes. Some of the banks that have the cash to dispense ration the notes to customers. For example, a branch of Zenith Bank on Friday was paying customers N8,000 each over the counter. There are fears that this trend may affect the February and March election if drastic action is not taken by the Federal Government.

Mr. Maxwell Adeleye, Strategic Communications Expert and Activist said on Wednesday that the policy has just turned into a disaster. “You have your money and you can’t spend it. Imagine people queuing at the bank by 6 am just to deposit their naira; I wish this never happen. What they ought to have done is simply, stop issuing the old naira notes, and it will just fizzle out like it was done to the old N100 notes that were changed earlier, nobody was given any deadline then. If they stop giving out the old naira notes, they will fizzle out naturally within three months but what did they do; they brought pain to Nigerians and this is unfair to the people.

“You asked people to deposit their old naira notes but your ATM machines are still dispensing old naira notes, why can’t we do something right in Nigeria? I even heard of someone who used five thousand naira to bribe so as to be able to deposit three hundred and fifty thousand naira, can you imagine?”

He added that the swapping exercise has been a pain for ordinary Nigerians. How do you expect all these market women that are selling pepper and meat to operate a cashless policy? The government should just do something to make life meaningful for people because the stress is too much.

“Also, the CBN, Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele should be investigated and questioned by the DSS, I think he has an agenda that people don’t know about yet. Whose errand is he delivering and who is he serving? He seems to be carrying out the errands of some powerful people who deliberately want to bring pain and agony to ordinary people.

“The current banking system in Nigeria is a disaster, from a cash deposit, withdrawal, and everything. I have an account with a bank and for the past four months I have not been able to use mobile banking when you complain, they will say they are working on it. Nothing is working in Nigeria from banking to education, security and infrastructure.”

“Corruption,” he said, “is synonymous with Nigeria now as banks hardly pay people with new notes because it’s never available but you will see it with those women selling it at parties and event halls; those currencies are not available at the banks but always available at every event halls. Why; the same things are applicable to the new naira notes which are not available to the common man but always available at parties, the Branch managers and the Branch service managers of banks need to be queried,” Adeleye lamented.

With the ongoing swapping of the old Naira notes with the new notes, the rush to beat the CBN extended deadline of February 10, has exposed Nigerians to untold hardships.

Mr. Obinna Ajoku, a businessman at Dei-Dei International Market Abuja, lamented that business has dwindled as nobody is coming to patronise them due to a lack of physical cash. “I hope and wish that after this exercise, we will see the new notes in circulation, to aid buying and selling,” Ajoku said.

A cross-section of those who spoke on the issue expressed optimism that the swapping exercise will record good success on average, not minding the scarcity of the redesigned notes. “The truth is that swapping of currencies is not automatic. It is a gradual process that requires sacrifice and financial discipline to adapt to. As people swap, with time, the new notes will continue to find their way into circulation,” a civil servant, Babatunde Ajayi submitted.

However, the aggregate opinion of those who added their voices to the agonising ripple effects of the swapping exercise blames the Federal Government for embarking on a hasty demonetisation policy. Some argued that the CBN ought to have ensured that GSM operators and financial institutions upgraded their telecommunication facilities, which play a vital role in a cashless economy.

“I entered a supermarket the other day, and after purchasing some items, because I didn’t have cash, I decided to pay using my ATM card. Honestly, the experience was not fun as I had to return all the items because there was no service in my bank (issuer inoperative).” Mr. Alagbaso David narrated.

For Musa Idris, the cashless policy has exposed Nigerian banks and their inability to provide internet services. “There is no cash in circulation. The POS agents are not giving out cash, and when you opt for a cash transfer, there is no service,” Idris said.

A random survey in Suleja, Niger State showed that many POS agents are collecting N500 as commission for every N5000, withdrawal whether old or new note. However, speaking on the implications of the demonetisation policy, a bank staff that preferred anonymity said it will raise the Naira value and strengthen the economy. “The implication is that the cost of prices of food items will gradually fall. Big sums of cash in the hands of well-to-do individuals, politicians, etc will reduce drastically.

“The value of the naira is now useless, if you have one thousand pounds today it’s one million naira, so why won’t our youths not run out of the country? The country is messing up their future and all that is happening is deliberate wickedness and hardship on the people of Nigeria,” he added.

Businesses and jobs are being lost already as confirmed by Ayo Oladunni, a petty trader in Ogba, Lagos State. She told said that the scarcity of the naira notes and petroleum products has reduced the number of sales she has been making in the past weeks.

“The amount I make on a daily basis has gone down massively because people do not have the cash to spend. They said they could not get cash from the banking halls and Point of Sales (PoS) operators in my area are charging an extra fee of N200 for N1,000 and there is some resistance to that. Petrol is being sold for above N300 per litre at filling stations in my area. All these are creating problems for everybody,” he said.

Elizabeth Adeleke, a baker in the Agege area of Lagos, said that the business has suffered losses because of fuel scarcity and the non-availability of naira notes. “The amount of money I pay to power the generator has gone up and I pay higher costs to take the bread around for sale. The issue is compounded by the scarcity of naira notes; customers complain that they do not have the cash to spend.

“There is an urgent need for the government to resolve the twin issues of scarcity of petroleum products and scarcity of naira notes. Cash oils the economy, without it, people cannot transact business. They should not try to take us back to the Stone Age when there was trade by barter,” he stated.

However, it was gathered that some residents of border communities Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina, Adamawa and Kwara States have opted for the CFA franc following the scarcity of the new naira notes across the country.

The residents, including traders and commercial drivers, are also rejecting the old naira notes, insisting that customers who do not have the new redesigned currency must pay for goods and services with CFAs.

A trader in Shinkafi town, who shuttles between Nigeria and Niger Republic, explained that most of his customers paid with the CFA.

“I cannot collect old naira notes and give out my commodities to any customer. But I will collect new naira notes and CFA because I am afraid of losing my money if the time for the exchange expires,’’ the trader, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said.

A grain seller in Dada village in Zurmi Local Government, Muhammadu Isa, disclosed that he stopped selling grains in the Nigerian currency after the CBN’s policy on new naira notes was unveiled.

The Chairman of Human Rights Defenders (HURIDE), Ebonyi State, Mr. Sampson Oko Nweke, expressed optimism that the naira notes swap policy will record a huge success despite the hitches and called on the CBN to ensure the February 10 deadline was sacrosanct.

He said: “The situation is very difficult and frustrating. The worst of it all (Saturday Independent)

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