Nigeria as a country has been through a lot of ups and downs right from independence. From a 30-months civil war, to a protracted stay of the military in government and series of economic downturn due to poor management of the nation’s economy. Nigerians have been subjected to series of hardship by its ruling class. For many Nigerians, the weight of economic hardship the last administration dropped on Nigerians was far more than what the citizens could bear. The last being the obnoxious redesigning of some denominations of the naira.
Had the now suspended Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele not dabbled into politics contrary to the ethics of his office, Nigerians would not have read suspicious meaning to his policy. In October 2022, Emefiele announced to the world that the apex bank would release re-designed naira notes into the economy. He said the re-designed currency would curb counterfeiting and ransom payment to kidnappers and terrorists.
In his words, “Indeed, the integrity of a local legal tender, the efficiency of its supply and its efficacy in the conduct of monetary policy are some of the hallmarks of a great central bank. In recent times, however, currency management has faced several daunting challenges that have continued to grow in scale and sophistication with attendant and unintended consequences for the integrity of both the CBN and the country.
“More specifically, as at the end of September 2022, available data at the CBN indicate that N2.73tn out of the N3.23tn currency in circulation was outside the vaults of commercial banks across the country, and supposedly held by members of the public. Evidently, currency in circulation has more than doubled since 2015, rising from N1.46tn in December 2015 to N3.23tn as at September 2022. I must say that this is a very worrisome trend that cannot continue to be allowed.”
However, convincing as these reasons may be, Nigerians would never forget in a hurry, the hardship the obnoxious policy meted on them. The immediate scarcity of both the old and the redesigned notes, and the long queues at the various ATMs and banks, heightened the frustration of Nigerians, some of who ventilated their frustration on facilities of some banks.
Had the CBN Governor continued with the policy after the Presidential election, perhaps, Nigerians would have adjusted to the reality but the policy was shelved and this breathed life to the speculation that it was targeted at frustrating the presidential ambition of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu who was in the thick of campaign when the policy was activated.
Nigerians would never forget the economic woes they were subjected to in the whole eight years of President Muhammadu Buhari. Before he took over the reins of power in 2015, the country’s inflation rates had been single digit. However, he left the country with an inflation rate that was over 20 percent.
According to the data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Nigeria’s food inflation rose to its highest level since 2008 in 2022. A reflection of the hardship poor Nigerians faced to get food at exorbitant rates. The NBS reported that food inflation climbed to 20.57 percent year-on-year in January 2021 making it the highest in over 11 years.
Some Nigerians are yet to adjust their lives to the consequences of the redesigned policy when the new president announced the immediate removal of fuel subsidy. In his May 29th inauguration speech, the president commended the “decision of the outgoing administration in phasing out the petrol subsidy regime which has increasingly favoured the rich more than the poor. Subsidy can no longer justify its ever-increasing costs in the wake of drying resources,” he said.
Since the removal, petrol prices have more than doubled and it has caused hike in the cost of transport while small businesses and millions of households that rely on PMS to power their generators due to inconsistent public power supply are troubled.
However, reacting to the removal and the effect it is having on Nigerians, the House of Representatives urged the Federal Government to purchase natural gas-powered mass transit buses as palliative measures to mitigate the effect of the removal of petroleum subsidies on the transportation sector.
According to a resolution of the House, “the federal government should immediately design measures and palliatives to cushion the effects of the subsidy removal for Nigerians effective from this year 2023 through the provision and procurement of CNG Buses as an alternative transport system with cheaper fuel consumption. The government should also introduce intermodal, regional and national transport systems to ease mass movement of people across the country,” the report read in part.
President Bola Tinubu has assured Nigerians that he would not let them down and that the challenges of the fuel subsidy would be for a short period. His directive that the CBN should reform foreign exchange and other moves are hopes that Nigerians may at least get some relief from the hardship of almost a decade.
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