By BASHIR ADEFAKA
Following the Presidential Broadcast of President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday, ordering the continued use of old N200 currency for the next sixty days, the economic hardship created by it for the Nigerian masses is yet to reduce, Human Resources Consultant, Alhaji Ibrahim Abdullahi, has noted.
However, Alhaji Abdullahi, who is also a Fellow, Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria, in a statement dated Friday February 17, 2023 and copy of which was sent to The DEFENDER, stated that “unless the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) takes pragmatic steps in implementing the Presidential directives by giving sufficient funds to all Commercial Banks in the Country, the tension created by the scarcity of the new Naira Notes and non-availability of the old N200 Notes cannot be reduced.”
Referring to the media interview granted Thursday by the CBN Governor Mr. Godwin Emefiele, as aired by Radio and TV stations as well as print and online newspapers, the human resources expert noted that the directives he said he issued to banks to release the old N200 notes for use had exposed to the nation a major fault about the CBN’s attitude to work.
According to him, the interview exposed to the nation “the diabolical attitude of CBN as everybody knows that with official expiry date of February 10th for the old Notes, no bank should have the currency in their possession any longer except the CBN! Who is fooling who?”
Alhaji Ibrahim blamed the CBN for the whole crisis saying that no bank could hoard the new notes if they are adequately circulated, adding that as a regulatory body that has offices in 36 states of the Federation and FCT Abuja, proper monitoring of all banks cannot be difficult but, as it is now seen to be more than difficult, he wondered “why the CBN is failing in its duties and responsibilities in both ways; i.e. circulating sufficient funds and monitoring the Banks’ disbursement to customers.”
The HR professional called on media organisations to do their jobs professionally and efficiently by detailing their reporters to all banks this Friday 27th February, 2023 and see “how chaotic the situation has remained in all commercial banks all over the country despite the Presidential Directives”.
He stated categorically that it appears there is a move to sabotage the forthcoming 2023 general elections and therefore called for drastic steps, to save the nation from avoidable calamity, by doing the needful urgently.
“Visits to all Banks today revealed same situation as it had been and even more chaotic than it had been in the last two weeks,” Alhaji Ibrahim Abdullahi said on Friday.
