Governor Nasir el Rufai appears to be on his own in his defiance of President Muhammadu Buhari and the Federal Government as reports show that the residents of the state capital prefer to submit their old Naira notes at the Central Bank than spend it as he directed.
The development comes as the CBN has denied that it asked commercial banks to start collecting old N500 and N1,000 notes from customers.
Spokesman of the apex bank, Osita Nwasinobi, said in a statement: “The attention of the Central Bank of Nigeria has been drawn to some fake and unauthorized messages quoting the CBN as having authorized the Deposit Money Banks to collect the old N500 and N1,000 Banknotes. For the avoidanceof doubt, and in line with Mr. President’s broadcast of February 16, 2023, the CBN has been directed to ONLY reissue and recirculate the old N200 banknotes and this is expected to circulate as legal tender for 60 days up to April 10, 2023.
“Members of the public should therefore disregard any message and/or information not formally released by the Central Bank of Nigeria on this subject.
“Media practitioners are advised to PLEASE verify any information from the correct sources before publication.”
Recall that within the space of a day after President Buhari ordered in a nationwide broadcast the re-circulation of N200 notes and declared that old N500 and N1,000 notes were no longer legal tenders, directing Nigerians to deposit old N500 and N1,000 notes at CBN offices; el Rufai gave his own statewide broadcast countermanding the President, asking residents to continue spending their N500 and N1000 notes, threatening to deal with any outlet that rejected the notes.
old notes remain legal tender, residents of Kaduna besieged the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in the state to deposit their old naira notes.
Many of the residents began to take their money to the CBN office in the capital city, because according to them, because they prefer to keep their money than lose it in a fight between the federal and state governments.
In declaring that N500 and N1,000 were no longer legal tender, President Buhari asked Nigerians to take old notes to the CBN and other designated places.
On Thursday, CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, pleaded with Nigeriansto allow the currency swap work.
His words to journalists in Abuja, “The truth is that we are all servants. We are serving Nigerians. As far as we are concerned the Attorney General has spoken on this matter and the President has sealed the whole issue this morning in his broadcast. I think I can only just appeal to Nigerians, let’s allow this policy to work.
“This policy is one policy that goes to reduce the problem of corruption and illicit financial flaws; this policy goes to resolve some of the problems in the economy; this policy also goes to reducing the level of insecurity in the country.
“So these three issues which are the tripod of this administration’s policy are all embedded in this policy. We should just allow it to work. We keep saying this, there are some temporary pains, but I can assure Nigerians that the long-run benefit to Nigeria is overwhelming and we should just give it a chance to work.”