New Naira Note: Governors Reject Buhari’s Plea for out of Court Settlement

Three governors who brought the Supreme Court lawsuit against the Federal government have rejected out-of-court settlements on the upheaval surrounding the new naira notes.

ENigeria Newspaper reports that, since the Central Bank of Nigeria announced the deadline of February 10, 2023 for the submission of obsolete naira notes, the situation in Nigeria has been somewhat chaotic.

Godwin Emefiele, the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), had urged owners of old naira notes in the denominations of N200, N500, and N1000 to deposit them in banks before February 10 when they would no longer be accepted as legal cash.

ENigerian Newspaper reports that three northern governors—Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State, Yahya Bello of Kogi State, and Bello Mattawale of Zamfara—went to the Supreme Court and filed a lawsuit disputing the deadline for the old naira notes due to the new notes’ apparent shortage.

It is now understood that for a possible out-of-court settlement, the Federal Government reportedly reached out to the three governors whose counterparts in Edo and Ondo State have now joined in the suit.

Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, disclosed on Wednesday that the federal government has approached governors to ask them to drop their appeal to the Supreme Court disputing the expiration of old naira notes.

El-Rufai claimed that the proposal was turned down because the governors disagreed with the terms put out by the Federal Government.

According to Punch, the governor’s Special Adviser, Media and Communication, Muyiwa Adekeye, quoted him to have said this in a statement on Wednesday, titled, ‘We do not want Exclusive Falsehood to gain traction- El-Rufai.”

The statement read in part, “Senior officials of the FG reached some governors, including Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, on phone to initiate discussions on a possible out-of-court settlement. The terms they proposed were to allow only the old N200 note to remain legal tender and be circulated by the CBN till 10 April 2023. They claimed that the CBN had already destroyed the old N500 and N1,000 notes that had been deposited, but that those persons who still held the old notes could redeem them up to 10 April 2023.

“These were not considered as serious proposals, for obvious reasons. Circulating the old N200 notes alone would not be sufficient to relieve widespread human suffering in Kaduna State, and indeed in Nigeria today.

“They knew that and that is why they falsely claimed that the CBN had already destroyed the old N500 and N1,000 notes. This is contrary to the fact available to the governors to the effect that the old notes were in the custody of commercial bank branches throughout Nigeria until the evening of Monday, February 13, and not a single N500 or N1000 had been destroyed.

“It is also a non-starter to insist on a new cut-off date without first assuring that sufficient new notes would have been printed and circulated. Information available to the governors also indicate that the Mint will need at least 12 months to print the minimum amount of N1trn needed to ensure a functioning trade and exchange environment in Nigeria.”