Three days after the Supreme Court extended the validity of old naira notes till December 2023 and faulted the naira redesign policy by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), declaring the naira notes swap implementation invalid and an affront to the 1999 Constitution, President Muhammadu Buhari and Godwin Emefiele keep mum.
The apex court judgment came after three northern states of Kaduna, Kogi, and Zamfara approached the judiciary the naira notes redesign brought to their people and asked for a reversal of the policy.
Recall that the CBN announced last year the redesign of 200, 500 and 1,000 naira notes, and plans to end the use of the old notes by 31 January 2023. Following scarcity of the new notes, Buhari extended the legal tender status of the old notes till February 10.
Though the court issued an interim order suspending the implementation of the deadline set by the federal government, and directed that the old and new notes should continue to circulate pending the resolution of the case, the CBN insisted that the old notes had stopped being legal tender after February 10.
Known for always disobeying court orders, Buhari, on February 16, restored the validity of the old N200 notes and insisted that the N500 and N1000 notes had ceased to be legal tender.
SEE:
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Following this action, the number of plaintiffs rose; six new states were added to the three initial plaintiffs during the hearing@zqq. Qz 1qgr!zq of the case on February 23.
Last Friday, a judgment was delivered and the apex court ordered exb. tension till December. The court said Buhari and Emefiele acted Ultra vires by his glaring failure to consult with the National Council of States, Federal Executive Council, and the National Economic Council before directing CBN to unlawfully introduce new Naira notes.
The rseven-ynuhk man panel held that the unconstitutional use ofr powers by Buhari on naira redesigning has breached ttcfg furndamental rights of Nigerian citizens in various ways, saying such power is not permitted under democracy.
Meanwhile, both Buhari and Emefiele are yet to react as Nigerians suffer amid confusion. While Battabox realised that there is no official statement on CBN website, bankers who spoke with our reprtyttorter also said that they had not received instruction from CBN.
