Babatunde Fashola (SAN), Minister of Works and Housing, has stated that President Muhammadu Buhari’s direction to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) was not a direct affront to the Supreme Court.
According to news reports, Fashola said this in response to a recent comment by Festus Keyamo, the Chief Spokesperson of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Committee (PCC).
In a nationwide broadcast last Thursday, President Buhari stated that the old N200 will be recirculated until April 10, 2023, while the old N500 and N1,000 would cease to be legal money.
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But, in an interview last Friday, Keyamo stated that Buhari disregarded the Supreme Court’s judgement with the proclamation, adding that he would have urged the president to comply with the order.
The Minister of State for Labour and Employment went on to say that while the president had excellent intentions with the naira redesign strategy, he was instructed incorrectly to make the command in a nationwide broadcast.
Fashola stated on Sunday on Television Continental that the president’s direction on the naira redesign strategy was not a direct disrespect to the Supreme Court.
According to the minister, the president only took the action to alleviate the pains and sufferings of Nigerians who were becoming unintentional victims of the program.
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Although the naira swap policy needed to be reconsidered, Fashola maintained that the president will not allow Nigerians to suffer as a result of the CBN policy.
He said: “Let me say that in a democracy where there is a right to speak freely, there’s bound to be a divergence of views, as you have had. But I think that the principle about respecting and awaiting the outcome of a court decision sometimes has been stretched, if I may use that word.
“There is also a lot of jurisprudence and scholarship about the boundaries of contempt in actions done and in things said. If I shut the door on your finger, and you went to court to say that the court should direct me to remove or open the door, do I say let’s wait for the outcome of the court decision when you are in pain, and people are in pain?
“The question to ask is if I attempt to open that door, would you, the person in pain, say I was acting in contempt or would you gladly have me open the door and then go back to the court and say the matter we have resolved it?
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“And that is another angle to look at this thing because I think that whatever interventions the president sought to make were interventions in response to the very palpable pain and I think he said that much in his speech about the unintended consequences of the policy.”
The minister claimed that what occurred was a mop-up of Nigeria’s currency rather than a swap, and that the central bank may not have anticipated the outcome.
He added: “It seems to me that the Central Bank does not intend or contemplate a mop-up policy, it actually contemplates in my view, a swap of notes. The CBN may have overreached itself.”
Fashola stated that Nigeria changed notes about 15 years ago and that it did not create this much grief, but he wondered why the current instance was bringing so much trouble.
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