Afam Ogene, the Labour Party caucus leader in the House of Representatives, has faulted the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) over its indecisiveness in the validity of the old and new naira notes.
This followed a clarification by the CBN that the latest Supreme Court pronouncement reversed its earlier ruling after the House, in a motion by Mr Ogene during plenary on Thursday, asked the apex bank to phase out the old currencies.
The CBN had said the apex court’s ruling did not state a definite date for the old N200, N500, and N1,000 naira notes to cease to be legal tender.
Mr Ogene said that despite the unintended factual error in the motion on the concurrent validity of old and redesigned notes two years later, the CBN’s lack of policy direction was embarrassing.
The lawmaker said the mix-up or innocent omission of the Supreme Court’s subsisting pronouncement on the validity of both versions of naira notes was acknowledged.
He said the House’s intervention, following the motion on the subject matter, was not conclusive.
The lawmaker said it was based on this fact that the House directed its Committee on Banking Regulations to interface with the apex bank and report back in 21 days.
The motion referenced the earlier Supreme Court pronouncement setting the same deadline following some litigations that trailed the controversial CBN policy.
Mr Ogene said, “But responding to the House resolution, the CBN’s statement curiously said the decision of the House was `calculated to disrupt the country’s payment system.`”
“The CBN also urged the people to disregard the information, quoting the latest Supreme Court pronouncement. Which country in the world runs its economy with two different sets of unidentical currency notes?
“What was the intention of the CBN in introducing new sets of notes; was it not with an aim at eventually replacing the old sets?”
He also decried the dilapidated nature of some currencies emanating from the vaults of the nation’s commercial banks.
“The CBN, as the country’s apex bank and regulator of the sector, cannot hide under the legalese of ‘deadline ad infinitum’ to shirk its responsibilities to the banking public,” Mr Ogene added.
(NAN)
