22nd February, 2023
All eyes will be on Nigeria’s Supreme Court today as 10 governors battle the Federal Government and its agency, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) over implementation of the obnoxious Naira redesign policy.
The apex court must stamp its feet down today or it will continue to be trample under feet of the executive flagrantly disobeying its order.
The CBN’s Naira redesign policy has impoverished the masses. Many are hungry as the new naira notes are nowhere to be found.
All around Nigeria, especially in the Southwest and South-South, there have been massive protests against CBN’s policy. Banks have been set ablaze and many others vandalised. Irate youths shutdown several roads and set up burnfires on them. Anarchy has in deed set in as hunger strikes many.
Everyone thought reprieve has come the way of the masses when the Supreme Court granted an interim injunction to allow the old naira notes to be in circulation pending the determination of the case filed by some governors against the obnoxious policy of the apex bank.
The Supreme Court had in a ruling on 8 February granted an interim injunction that the CBN and the federal government should suspend the implementation of the February10 deadline for the expiration of the legal tender status of the old N200, N500 and N1000 notes.
On 15 February the apex court affirmed the ruling. This, it said, should be pending until the hearing and determination of a suit before it slated for February 22.
In a surprise move President Buhari on 16 February, in a broadcast announced that only the old N200 note would remain valid until April 10. He said old N500 and N1000 notes had ceased to be legal tender.
The broadcast had been heavily criticised and condemned by lawyers and many of the 21 governors of the APC. Many expressed outrage that the President could openly defy the apex court in a democracy.
Today, the case is coming up at the Supreme Court. The aggrieved governors have already filed contempt of court against the CBN’s governor, Godwin Emefiele for not obeying the apex court’s judgement.
All eyes is on the Supreme Court to redeem its image and show that it is in deed the final arbiter of the law and the hope of the masses.
It is expected today the court should make a gazing stock out of those trampling upon its supremacy and sovereignty.
The masses are waiting for a spark of home from the apex court to end their suffering three days to the presidential election.