Naira Deadline: El-Rufai, Matawalle, Bello take CBN, Buhari regime to Supreme Court
To block President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration and the Central Bank of Nigeria from continuing to implement the naira redesign strategy, three governors—Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna, Yahaya Bello of Kogi, and Bello Matawalle of Zamfara—have filed an ex parte motion before the Supreme Court.
The motion, which is backed by a request for a hurried hearing, asks that the current provisions of the Central Bank of Nigeria Act, 2007, the Nigerian Constitution, and pertinent statutes be declared to be broken by the regime’s demonetisation program.
The governors also asked the court to rule that Section 20(3) of the CBN Act 2007, which mandates that reasonable notice must be given, has been flagrantly violated by the CBN’s three-month notice that older denominations will lose their legal tender status, which was issued with Mr. Buhari’s approval.
The motion’s plaintiffs are the attorneys general of the three northern states, while the single respondent is Abubakar Malami, the justice minister.
The plaintiffs asserted that the Buhari administration disregarded its obligation to ensure a smooth switch from the old banknotes to the new currencies.
The governors deemed the proposal undesirable due to its quick implementation, associated turmoil, and the suffering it is causing Nigerians.
The federal government, acting through the CBN, does not have the authority to set a deadline for accepting and redeeming banknotes issued by the Bank, with the exception of the circumstances listed in Section 22(1) of the CBN Act 2007. This is based on the plain language of Section 20(3) of the CBN Act 2007.
The lawsuit was brought as a result of the CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, saying over the weekend that the apex bank would not postpone the deadline but rather would cooperate with pertinent stakeholders to make the policy’s implementation easier.
