State Broadcast by Malam Nasir El-Rufai, Governor of Kaduna State, 16th February 2023.
My dear people of Kaduna State,
1. With just
about 100 days before leaving office, and elections just round the corner, it
was my intention to host another media chat to interact with the people of our
state in the next few days. While I still hope to do so, I feel the need to
address you all today due to the unprecedentedly cruel situation our people and
their livelihoods have been thrown into, particularly in the last two to three
weeks by the decisions, actions and inactions of the Federal Government
of Nigeria.
2. On behalf
of the government of Kaduna State, I wish to express my deepest regret at the
needless suffering you are enduring as a result of the prolonged fuel shortage
and the difficulties occasioned by the so-called “currency redesign” policy of
the Central Bank of Nigeria. We understand your pain. I assure you that as your
State Governor, I have been working with my other colleagues to do everything
in our power to end these pains.
3. While
publicly supporting what appeared to be a beneficial policy, we innocently
engaged privately with the President and the leadership of the Central Bank of
Nigeria to review the implementation of the policy so as to reduce its negative
impact on the lives and livelihoods of our people, and end the pain being
inflicted on citizens. In the absence of any progress to modify implementation
on the part of the architects, we were forced to go public about two weeks ago,
with our concerns and demand that this suffering must stop.
4. We take
seriously our duty to protect ordinary people from the consequences of these
policy fiascos. The sad fact is that the victims of these mindless policies are
the people that elected us. It is their welfare that is being threatened. Many
of our people have been left in a situation where the money they put in banks
has literally been confiscated, depriving them of the ability to buy food and basic
necessities. Our traders cannot sell as much as they used to because their
customers have no access to their hard-earned money.
5. We have
been officially informed that the currency redesign policy is to reduce money
laundering and render useless stashes of high denomination Naira that many
politicians and public officers have accumulated through corruption and other
illicit activities. As earlier stated, we are fully in support of such a policy
and we made this public from the beginning.
6. We had
privately expressed concerns about the timing of the currency design policy and
the unrealistic timeline for its implementation. We were assured that all steps
have been taken to ensure that we avoid the recent experience of India, where
implementation of a similar demonetisation policy targeted at politicians ended
up hurting the poorest and small businesses the most.
7. In official
briefings to the President, the Central Bank of Nigeria constantly alluded to
the fact that the policy also targets politicians who have accumulated a huge
war chest for vote buying during the elections. It is now clear that the
President has been deceived by the Central Bank of Nigeria and some elements in
his government into buying into this overarching narrative, in the name of
ensuring free and fair elections in 2023.
8. It is
important for the people of Kaduna State, and indeed Nigeria, to know that
contrary to the public pronouncements and apparent good intentions, this policy
was conceived and sold to the President by officials who completely lost out in
the Gubernatorial and Presidential Primaries of the APC in June 2022.
9. Once
Asiwaju Bola Tinubu emerged as the candidate in June 2022, and subsequently did
not pick one of them as his running mate, this currency redesign policy was
conceived to ensure that the APC presidential candidate is deprived of what
they alleged is a humongous war chest. They also sought to achieve any one or
more of following objectives:
a. Create a
nationwide shortage of cash so that citizens are incited to vote against APC
candidates across the board resulting in massive losses for the Party in all
the elections;
b. Ensure that
the cash crunch is so serious, along with the contrived and enduring fuel
shortage existing since September 2022, that the 2023 Elections do not hold at
all, leading to an Interim National Government to be led by a retired Army
General;
c. Sustain the
climate of shortage of fuel, food and other necessities, leading to mass
protests, violence and breakdown of law and order that would provide a fertile
foundation for a military take-over;
10. In the
pursuit of these objectives, the Central Bank of Nigeria and these other
disgruntled Federal officials have so far convinced the President that it is
fine for ordinary citizens to be dispossessed of their hard-earned money, and
starved if need be, while small and medium-sized businesses are deprived of
access to their capital, thereby bringing trade and exchange to a grinding
halt. All our efforts to modify implementation of the policy to avoid what we
assumed were unintended consequences were unsuccessful. I chose to speak out
first as one person that has been particularly close to the President,
believing that his actions were motivated by innocence, and mindful of his
legacy. I have no regrets for doing my duty in this regard. One day, the
President will appreciate what some of us are being insulted for today.
11. Yet, the
politicians that the officials have convinced the President to regard as the
real targets of the currency redesign policy have not been impeded in any way
by it so far. Indeed, two of the presidential candidates, and a running mate of
the opposition parties own or have preferred access to some of the licensed
banks. For that reason and by various clandestine arrangements, these
politicians have access to hundreds of millions of these new notes, while the
traders, merchants, students and other citizens are queuing for days to
withdraw a few thousand Naira just to buy food and necessaries.
12. Within two
to three weeks of implementation, it was clear to everyone that the architects
of this policy can see that it is our people that are being terribly affected,
and not the politicians. It is quite unfortunate that many politicians who
either own banks or have privileged access to money are so insulated from the
pains of talakawa that they are recklessly endorsing a policy that is being
badly implemented.
13. I am
referring here to the comments by the candidate of one of the opposition
parties who expressed opposition to the recommendation first of the APC state
governors, and subsequently of all the governors under the auspices of the
Nigeria Governors Forum that the implementation timeline be extended, to enable
the old and new notes to be legal tender side by side until the cash shortage
ends.
14. My dear
people of Kaduna State. Let me explain how the architects of this policy
intentionally designed it to fail. The total currency in circulation in Nigeria
was estimated at N3.2 trillion at the end of 2022. According to the Central
Bank of Nigeria, N2.1 trillion has been withdrawn as at early February. The CBN
claimed that N700bn is the amount of cash needed for their functioning vision
of a “cash-less” Nigerian economy. The Chief Economic Adviser to the President,
Dr. Doyin Salami disagrees with this estimate, and believes at least N2
trillion of currency needs to be in circulation for our economic
sustainability. Other experts variously estimate this to be between N1.2
trillion and above, so the CBN number of N700bn is not realistic.
15. The CBN
informed the President at the very beginning that the Mint (NSPMC) has enough
capacity to print the needed currency in circulation within the 6-week
timeframe for the so-called ‘cash swap’. By its own admission, only N400bn
worth of new notes had been printed for CBN as at early February.The current
cash shortage was therefore designed from the beginning, the President was lied
to about the domestic capacity of the Mint to print, and even if the announced
N700bn was printed, it would have been grossly inadequate anyway. Imagine then
printing only N400bn, and making most of it unavailable to the banks but passed
to favoured entities through special arrangements. How can the CBN collect N2.1
trillion from citizens and print only N400bn? Is this not a clear case of
economic sabotage?
16. It is bad
economics to so curtail economic activity and the velocity of circulation of
money. It is also insensitive to deliberately cause cash shortage and then seek
to instigate the public against the mostly innocent commercial banks. Even the
most honest and prudent action by banks cannot magically make N400bn to look
like N2.1 trillion, or have the same spread and availability like the CBN
should have ensured. As a regulator, the CBN should not be seen to be setting
up the banking sector as the public enemy to cover up the glaring failure in
its design and implementation of the cash swap policy.
17. We have
repeatedly appealed to the Federal Government to allow whatever remains of the
old notes to circulate concurrently with the new notes. We recommended that the
Federal Government should also hasten to ensure that more of the new notes are
printed and brought into circulation. We thought that if the Nigerian Mint is
incapable of printing the volume of cash needed as it appears, then necessary
steps must urgently be taken to get a reliable supply source.
18. There is
no reason why the old notes and the new notes should not coexist until the old
notes are gradually withdrawn over the years as is done in the United Kingdom,
Saudi Arabia and other countries. It is unfortunate that in implementing this
policy, Nigeria is departing from global best practise, without any compelling
justification. The Kaduna State Government did all these, not in opposition to
any person or authority, but because we stand with our people and their
interests.
19. When it
was clear that our recommendations will not be seriously considered, the Kaduna
State Government decided, along with the governments of Kogi and Zamfara States
to declare a dispute with the Federal Government. In line with the provisions
of the Constitution, we approached the Supreme Court of Nigeria to invoke its
original jurisdiction to hear us and the cries of our people. The Court did on
February 8th, and ordered that the deadline of February 10th for all the ‘old’
notes ceasing to be legal tender be rescinded until the determination of the
suit. This ruling applies to the Federal Government and its agencies like the
CBN, and all commercial banks! We are grateful to the Court for this ruling,
and we had hoped that compliance by the CBN and the banks would bring relief to
our people. It is now clear that the architects of this policy are determined
to continue to inflict maximum pain on the citizens to achieve their objectives
outlined earlier.
20. It was our
hope that the Federal Government of Nigeria would welcome this injunction as an
opportunity to mitigate the needless human suffering being experienced and
correct its course on this matter. There is no emergency situation that
justifies the rushed and seemingly deliberate incompetent execution of this
policy. We suggested that compliance with the ruling would include adopting a
whole-of-government approach, that involves the agencies of the federal and
state governments in modifying the design, execution the implementation of the
currency redesign policy.
21. Even when
confronted with the facts above, the CBN and its masters remain determined to
implement their agenda no matter how much human suffering, death and
destruction results. It is clear that the architects of this policy always had
objectives that are totally in conflict with public interest, peace and the
unity of Nigeria. They neither considered our suggestions in line with the
Court order, nor respected the unanimous resolution of the Council of State.
22. It is also
quite revealing that the Federal Government and its agencies not only disobeyed
the February 8th ruling by continuing to say the February 10th deadline stands.
It is shocking to see the blatant violation of the subsisting and continuing
order of the Supreme Court that ALL the old and new notes should continue to be
legal tender until it gives judgment in the case filed by the Kaduna State
Government along with several others.
23. The
address by the President earlier this morning limiting the legal tender status
of old notes to only N200 amounts to total disregard and disobedience of the
ruling of February 8th which was extended further yesterday by the Supreme
Court. The misguided action of the Attorney-General to mislead the President
into engaging in this public violation of the order of the highest court of the
land shows how desperate the policy architects are to cause national chaos, by
showing open contempt for the judiciary.
24. The
decision to recognise only N200 as legal tender till April that the President
announced this morning was offered to the state governments as part of
proposals for an out-of-court settlement three days ago. The Federal Government
asserted that this was offered because all the ‘old’ N1,000 and N500 notes had
been destroyed. We rejected the offer and proved to the officials that not a
single higher denomination note had been destroyed. We also believe that
circulating N200 only to be inadequate in alleviating the suffering that we see
every day. We insisted that all the components of the Supreme Court order
should be complied with.
25. But back
home, what do we do in Kaduna State? My dear of people of Kaduna State, with
the foregoing revelations, it is clear that our peaceful coexistence as a
state, and a nation, is being placed under deliberate danger using the
intentional combination of fuel and cash supply disruptions. These evil people
using the instrumentality of the Federal Government and the President as
convenient covers are willing to truncate our democracy because they have
personally lost out. They are massively deploying resources and tools to defeat
the political party that gave us the platform to serve the country just because
they could not impose the candidates of their choice. Let us not help
them
26. Let us stay
calm and peaceful, and support the lawful means being utilised to solve our
problems. On behalf of the Kaduna State Government, I wish to assure you that
none of you would lose the money you have in old notes. Let no artificial and
illegal deadline frighten you. Whether you live in towns, villages or in our
isolated rural communities, do not feel stampeded to deposit your old notes in
the banks. Hold on to them. Continue to use them as legal tender as ordered by
the Supreme Court of Nigeria. No deadline can render them worthless, ever. The
law is on your side. The Central Bank of Nigeria Act, 2007 and the Bills of
Exchange Act, both oblige the CBN to recognise your old notes and give
you value in new notes whenever you bring them to the CBN, even in the next 100
years.
27. Therefore,
as your governor, I wish to assure you that the Kaduna State Government, in
collaboration with elected legislators, traditional institution, elected local
government councils, markets, and traders associations will help you collect,
record, document, collate and deliver all your old notes to the Kaduna branch
of the Central Bank on your behalf into the new ones immediately after the
elections. We will also ensure the delivery of your new notes to your various
locations without any hardship or expense on your part. We shall save you any
panic and the stress of a long journey from your community to the CBN office in
our state capital, from March until December 2023 if need be.
28. For the
avoidance of doubt, all the old and new notes shall remain in use as legal
tender in Kaduna State until the Supreme Court of Nigeria decides otherwise. I
therefore appeal to all residents of Kaduna State to continue to use the old
and new notes side by side without any fear. The Kaduna State Government and
its agencies shall seal any facility that refuses to accept the old notes as
legal tender and prosecute the owners. If need be, we shall take further
consequential actions according to the law.
29. While
urging you all not to fall for these antics of the enemies of Nigeria, please
be patient and continue to exercise resilience in the face of open provocation
and deliberate disinformation. We encourage you to be ready with your PVC to
vote in the February 25 Presidential and National Assembly elections. We are
doing all we can to ensure that it is peaceful, orderly and hitch-free. I
appeal to you to understand the shenanigans of these unpatriotic elements in
Abuja and ensure you vote massively for the intended victims of these
last-minute policies of needless hardship and incitement of the citizens - our
party, the APC and its candidates in all the elections.
30. The Kaduna
State Government is making this appeal, and taking all these measures to shield
our people from the terrible consequences of the currency redesign policy. We
seek to protect our people’s hard-earned money, their ability to engage in
trade and exchange and buy what they need. We also seek to protect their civic
rights, liberties and freedoms under a democratic dispensation. I call on the
people of Kaduna State to remain peaceful and vigilant in the face of brazen
attempts to engineer crisis in order to get a pretext for unconstitutional or
undemocratic actions.
31. In
conclusion, our Presidential Candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has asked me
to convey his greetings, empathy and words of encouragement to the good people
of Kaduna State. He urges us to remain patient, pray for our country and remain
vigilant in our pursuit of Renewed Hope.
Thank you all
for listening. God Bless Kaduna State. God Bless the Federal Republic of
Nigeria.
Nasir Ahmad
El-Rufai, CON
Kaduna, 16th
February 2023
