Kemi Olaitan in Ibadan
A member of the Security and Intelligence Committee of the Tinubu/Shettima Presidential Campaign Council, Ambassador Abayomi Nurain Mumuni, has charged the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), to put in place measures to ease the hardship Nigerians are currently passing through over the new Naira notes.
It would be recalled that the CBN on Sunday extended the deadline for the validity of old N200, N500, and N1,000 banknotes till February 10 from January 31 earlier fixed.
But the 2011 gubernatorial candidate of the defunct Congress for Progressives Change (CPC) in Lagos state, while lauding the CBN for the extension, said swapping of old naira notes with new notes was causing untold suffering to many Nigerians with the masses at the receiving end.
Mumuni in a statement by his Media Aide, Rasheed Abubakar, said happenings at the Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) where old notes were still dispensed was an indication that the CBN was not ready for the policy, noting that if it is committed to making Nigerians have the new naira notes the first thing to do is to wipe out the old notes in circulation.
He added that ATMs in many banks across the country were still being filled with the old notes despite the fact that the CBN had ordered commercial banks not to give out the new notes through the counter to avoid favouritism, stating that the introduction of the new Naira notes and their scarcity is causing hardship among Nigerians.
According to him, “It is a welcome development that the CBN has extended the deadline for the validity of the old naira notes but it is important to call on the CBN to restrategize to ease the sufferings of Nigerians as what is on ground points to the fact that the CBN is practically not ready to implement the policy on the new naira notes.
“When you want to change currency notes, first thing to do is to wipe out the old ones in circulation but if not that the deadline was extended banks are still doling out the old naira notes. Indeed, the fact that the ATMs are still being filled with the old naira notes is alarming and day by day the situation is causing hardship with the masses at the receiving end.”
