Emefiele: Pains of indecision- Femi Adeoti Column

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FEMI ADEOTI COLUMN

The trust deficit of this reigning regime is quite huge. It is
mounting by the second. You dare not quantify it. That will be costly
futility. It’s somewhat damning.
Even more calamitous, it is not abating. Rather, it’s climbing on to
the rooftop. And with the speed of light! This is ruinous. Who can
stop the catastrophe?
It’s monstrous. The more we inch closer to May 29, 2023. The harsher
and tougher life becomes. The nearer we think we are, the farther it
becomes.
These past horrible weeks! Perilous times all the way, heavily laced
with land mines. Speechless, overwhelmed couldn’t describe it.
They meant their evil business. They bent us we did not break. It’s
our solid resolve not to be cowed by these little minds. We denied
them that privileged luxury. And it pained them to the marrows.
We could see that all over them. We could feel it in their body
language, actions and inactions. They almost snuffed life out of us.
They choked us. We refused to cave in. We were really brought down.
But, we’re still standing.
From the blues, naira woke up from its deep slumber. So, naira could
be this sought after? It became “strong” against itself. Courtesy:
Godwin Emefiele’s Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Imagine, naira gaining strength against naira! It has never been heard
of in any economy but ours. That’s the saddest takeaway form
Emefiele’s naira renovation.
We bear the brunt. It is heavy and unbearable. Nigerians are buying
money to spend money. Yet, our aspiring leaders maintain closed eyes.
They elect to keep mum to themselves. See how deadly they pursue their
misplaced priority. Their parochial focus: Aso Rock or nothing. The
reason they continue to soar in gaffes, errors, missteps, goofs et al.
Ours is one wild, weird world. We have an equally bizarre, eccentric
economy. Stranger than fiction! That’s how rotten and deep we have
sunk. From the infamous “top to bottom.” And the end appears not in
sight.
Our greatest undoing: We have never planned for what we plan to do.
Our policies are without foundation. They’re rolled into emptiness.
They fall flat as speedily as they are churned out. And become empty
thereafter. We somersault at will.  So be it with this Emefiele’s
naira restructuring. They never planned for it like its predecessors.
Sampler: CBN first introduced a cashless policy in January 2012: “To
encourage electronic-based transactions and reduce circulation of
physical cash nationwide.”
It was piloted in Lagos. Nothing again was practically and feasibly
heard of it. Nine years later, it emerged. This time, it carried the
label of e-Naira. CBN organised its launch and activation on October
25, 2021.
It was an uncommon jamboree in every department. Buhari was actively
involved in all of this. Emefiele made him to do it with funfair and
fanfare. Its slogan: “Same Naira, More Possibilities.”
The carnival ended there. It silently receded into oblivion. That laid
the booby traps for the naira renovation. Without reviewing the past,
CBN blindly launched into the future.
Pity, these past excruciating weeks. They reduced us to utter nullity.
We moaned. We groaned. For the initial 100 days, CBN was not there for
us. And we didn’t miss it. It failed all the tests, written and
unwritten.
It couldn’t even meet goals set for itself under no duress. It watched
with glee, amazement and amusement.  Our predicament was their
entertainment. They enjoyed it when it lasted.
The POS operators connived to skin us. They feasted on us with relish.
It was like never before. They inflicted injuries on us for no just
cause. We never bargained for their onslaught. It was deadly and
devastating. Worse still, it’s on going.
The greedy bankers also took their pound of flesh from us. They found
ready allies in our voracious politicians. Jointly, they did us in.
They kept the new notes from our poor reach.
The wads of new naira landed effortlessly on the laps of the
privileged. You could see them displayed carelessly in parties and the
like. With that, they laugh us to scorn.
One odd character stood out in this play-out. No contention. Emefiele
is it! He is the ever-curious recurring decimal. He is the face of the
CBN’s notoriety.
What he could not fix in 100 days, he strived to rectify in 10 days.
Sadly, Buhari urged him on. They have been in it together since 2015.
The President couldn’t have backed out now.
He came out forcefully and boldly to fortify Emefiele. Buhari vowed to
a depressed nation: “I will revert to the CBN and the Minting Company.
There will be a decision one way or the other in the remaining seven
days of the 10-day extension.”
That vow expires tomorrow. The issues involved are still nagging. They
still left many things undone; doing the wrong. The Supreme Court has
stopped all that. It put its heavy spanner in the works for Emefiele
yesterday.
At the critical eleventh hour, the court collapsed his policy on his
head. That is the costly price you pay for indecision. Let Emefiele
lick his self-inflicting wounds all alone.
This is their disgusting template. You jump up from the bad side of
your bed. That is after having nightmares all through. And you want to
implement a policy you least prepare for. Not even remotely!
That has been their practice. Agreed. You want to mop up funds to hurt
vote-buyers. Why now? Reason: Buhari is no longer on the ballot paper.
He was in 2019. That time was not auspicious. No, not conducive for
naira renovation. No sincerity of purpose. It’s all about self.
We still have N5, N10, N20, N50 and N100. They are the lowest
denominations, not under repairs. Politicians will not want to spend
or even touch them. They don’t need them. They may not have seen the
lowest notes in ages.
This is the right time to push them out to us. In large quantities
too! We desperately need them now for our survival. We will gladly
embrace them.
The holy book attests: Matthew 22 verse 22 (NIV): “Give to Caesar what
is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” Let the greedy have the N200,
N500, N1,000 notes to themselves. And these come handy for their
vote-buying agenda.
Let the gluttonous politicians hold on to the highest notes. We are
contented with the lowest. We must live. And live in satisfaction. Not
in apprehension. That’s our priority.
Currency change is never strange to us. We did it before in 1973 and
1984. That of January 1973 was very profound. It was a complete
overhaul. We moved radically from metric to decimal.
The major unit of currency then used to be £1. It gave way to one
naira, equivalent to 10 shillings. The minor unit was replaced by
kobo. It made it 100 kobo to N1.
The transition was almost seamless. No major hitches or even hiccups.
General Yakubu Gowon was its conductor. The exact opposite was the
case in 1984. Buhari presided as military Head of State.
We were made to change the notes within 12 days, May 6, 1984. It was
chaotic from start to finish. Monies were lost and lives wasted. Why
do we refuse to pick useful lessons from our ugly past?
We won’t stop asking: What exactly happened to e-Naira? It faded away
the very way they banged it on us. Many didn’t even understand what it
meant. And how it was supposed to work.
We insist: Emefiele should have stuck to his guns. He couldn’t have
crashed the way he did yesterday. But, he couldn’t sustain the steam.
Poor him, the odds submerged him. He caved in when it mattered most.
His is an enormous leadership deficiency.
Glaringly, the extension was unwise, unnecessary. It only worsened and
widened our woes. He got things thoroughly messed up. We paid heavily
for CBN’s gross errors. They meant evil for us.
Our unpleasant takeaway: Naira is strong again! It’s waxing stronger
against itself. And there’s no stopping it.
Are we not laughable? Yes, we really are!