The reported talks taking place between the governors of the All Progressives Congress and the Federal Government on finding a resolution to the logjam created by the Naira Redesign and Cash Swap case before the Supreme Court has been described as a convenient middle ground for the resolution of the matter.
Oludare Marindoti, Governor of the Social Rehabilitation, Grace and Support Initiative disclosed this while reacting to the discussions for an out of court settlement between the Governors and the Federal Government.
He said neither the Federal Government and the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Governor, Godwin Emefiele, has the power nor right to disobey the Supreme Court.
He said the premise for the Naira Redesign and Currency Swap is flawed from the onset.
He disclosed that he is sure that the President may have been misled into approving the Naira Redesign and Currency Swap Policy pointing to the example of a speech made by the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, to the diplomatic Community.
He disclosed that the value of Money in circulation in 2015 is higher than the value in circulation right now.
He said with the use of exchange rate variations the value of Money in circulation in 2015 is between 31 to 41 percent more than now.
According to him this shows that the purchasing power has reduced considerably from 2015 to 2023.
Mr Marindoti said the underlying statistics show that the premise for the decision as espoused by the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria is faulty at best.
He used the example of the time when he was a first year medical Doctor his one month salary will conveniently buy a brand new IPhone but a medical Doctor on the same Salary now will have to save for four months to buy the same commodity.
He said the so called pressure on Commodity purchase by the CBN Governor does not exist.
He disclosed that the cause of Nigeria’s problem especially in terms of FOREX is the management system that the Central Bank of Nigeria has used till now.
He added that if the issue of FOREX Management system being used by the CBN is addressed, the nation will be able to understand and do things better.
Going Further He said the problem started with the production raise initiated within OPEC by Saudi Arabia in 2014 to crash the price of oil from 88 Dollars per barrel to 50 Dollars as a direct attack on US Oil producers to stop them from making profit.
He said since then the value of the Naira started nosediving with the government failing to take advantage and re-engineer the nations’ finances like it was done in Lagos by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu when the Federal Government tried to emasculate the State financially.
He added that the nation should have initiate a charm offensive to woo foreign investors to invest in Nigeria since the cost of investment had reduced but went the ridiculous way of currency control.
Mr Marindoti while quoting the President said ” He told us the Money in Peoples Homes was 78 percent in 2015 but has reduced by about 26 percent in value.
He said the whole redesign Policy is in his words ” Bonkers” and meant to confiscate cash from people .
He disclosed that while all Cash is Money not all money is Cash explaining that Cash is just about 6 percent of Money supplied.
He said their is no need to put people who run small businesses in the country under considerable pressure.
According to Marindoti, a friend of his in Lagos who runs a Rice Mill has been waiting to get twenty thousand Naira cash for more than two weeks without success.
He expressed the hope that cooler heads will prevail in addressing the issue wondering why the President when he lost elections before went to Court to seek redress is failing to obey a court ruling from the highest Court in the Country.
