Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai revealed that federal government officials contacted him and some governors about the new naira policy. However, he rejected the offer made by the government headed by Muhammadu Buhari, he said.
El-Rufai said the federal government has proposed allowing the old N200 banknotes into circulation until April 10. In exchange, the governors were required to withdraw the lawsuits brought by their states in the courts.
The governor, in a statement issued by his press aide Muyiwa Adekeye on Wednesday, said The report that the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) and the federal government held a meeting in the early hours of Wednesday morning ahead of Wednesday’s Supreme Court hearing was false.
He said that such a meeting did not occur. Instead, there was a phone conversation in which officials offered a concession to allow the old N200 notes to remain in circulation while the governors dropped the case.
He stated that the federal government claimed that the Central Bank of Nigeria is destroying the old notes of the higher denominations of N500 and N1,000.
“The terms they proposed were to allow only the old N200 note to remain legal tender and be circulated by the CBN until April 10, 2023,” he said.
El-Rufai said the proposal was rejected because retaining the old notes will not address the economic challenges caused by the shortage of naira notes.
PREMIUM TIMES reported that Mr. El-Rufai’s Kaduna State, along with Kogi State and Zamfara State filed a joint lawsuit against the federal government in the Supreme Court over monetary policy.
The states, which were later joined by seven others, asked the Supreme Court to block the federal government from implementing the February 10 deadline for the use of old notes. However, despite the interim court order, the central bank insisted on the deadline, thus sustaining the cash shortage as new notes are insufficient.
After the Supreme Court session on Wednesday, the court adjourned until February 22 to decide on the policy.
Protests have been rocking various cities across the country, with commercial banks being targeted.
Read Mr. El-Rufai’s full statement below.
Just hours after the Supreme Court suspended the “currency redesign” case today, The Cable, a respected publication, published what it described as an exclusive story on the Federal Government’s intentions in this regard.
Malam Nasir El-Rufai would like to clarify that The Cable has been misled by its sources on this issue. There has been no meeting this week between the FG and the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) or Progressive Governors Forum (PGF), let alone one that will last until the early hours of today, Wednesday 15 February 2023.
Rather, senior FG officials contacted some governors, including Malam Nasir El-Rufai, by phone to start talks about a possible out-of-court settlement. The terms they proposed were to allow only the old N200 note to remain legal tender and be circulated by the CBN until April 10, 2023. They claimed that the CBN had already destroyed the old N500 and N1000 notes that had been deposited, but that those people who still had the old tickets could redeem them until April 10, 2023.
These were not considered as serious proposals, for obvious reasons. Circulating the old N200 notes alone would not be enough to alleviate widespread human suffering in Kaduna State and indeed Nigeria today. They knew this and so they falsely claimed that the CBN had already destroyed the old N500 and N1000 notes. This is contrary to the fact available to the Governors that the old notes were in the custody of commercial bank branches in Nigeria until the evening of Monday 13 February, and not a single N500 or N1000 had been destroyed.
It’s also not a start to insist on a new deadline without first making sure enough new notes have been printed and circulated. The information available to the Governors also indicates that the Mint will need at least 12 months to print the minimum amount of N1 trillion needed to ensure a functioning trading and trading environment in Nigeria.
The presentation of false facts, inadequate solutions to the suffering of our people, and the bad faith that some of the FG negotiators displayed in our phone conversations and chats have now been taken further by leaking a false version and context to a respected media outlet. . The plaintiff governors rejected the draft proposal as insincere and invested our hopes in the Nigerian Supreme Court.
Malam Nasir El-Rufai will be addressing the people of Kaduna State on this currency redesign mess, the consequences of the Nigerian Supreme Court injunction extension and related matters tomorrow. But the Kaduna State government believes it is important tonight not to allow an exclusive falsehood to stand, or even gain the slightest traction. Therefore, this statement is issued to clarify the records.