By Owei Lakemfa
A Lebanese man on September 16, 2022, wielding a gun, held up the Byblos Bank in Ghazieh, Southern Lebanon. No, not to rob the bank or its customers. Just to retrieve part of his money trapped in the country’s banks! So, to retrieve part of his money, he had to hold up the bank and take hostages. As news of the holdup spread, crowds gathered in front of the bank to cheer him on.
Two days earlier, there had been two other holdups in Beirut and the town of Ale. Although all the weapons turned turned out to be toy guns, but nobody will confront a desperate armed man believing the gun he is carrying is a toy.
In August, 2022, a man held up a Beirut bank just to withdraw his own
funds to treat his sick father. He went home a free man when the bank dropped
its lawsuit against him. Also, a Lebanese woman seized a bank in Beirut
demanding her frozen deposits in order to pay the medical bills of her sister.
These were surreal images and I
felt sorry that Lebanon, once considered the banking capital of the Arab world,
which was why it was called the “Switzerland of the Middle East”, could have
become a failed state.
Never in my wildest imagination
could I have conceived not too dissimilar scenes in Nigeria just four months
down the line. This was because I did not reckon with a man called Muhammadu
Buhari, a retired general and former Military dictator who runs the regime in
Nigeria as elected President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.
His regime decided to change the three highest denominations of the Naira with effect from December 15, 2022. The end date was fixed at January 31, 2023. While in compliance, the populace returned the old bank notes to the bank, the new notes did not flow in sufficient quantity. The mass media quoted Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai as claiming that while the Central Bank mopped up N2 trillion old notes, only N300 billion new notes were in circulation.
Whether this claim is
true or not, the fact is that a financial crisis is sweeping through the
country and Lebanon-like scenes are being enacted. Although guns have not
surfaced in bank halls, they have in the streets where armed policemen engaged
citizens protesting the cash shortage and the failure of banks to pay
customers.
Also in the historic city of
Benin where protesters had taken to the streets, armed soldiers have had
altercations with the students of the University of Benin over access to
Automated Teller Machines, ATM, which has become the primary means of
collecting money.
In Abuja, I saw the trending
video of a naked, elderly man in a bank weeping inconsolably because he could
not retrieve his money to take care of his family. He ignored the entreaties of
bank officials. Rather, he demanded to be killed: “Make dem shoot me make I die. Make I forget my children, make I forget
my wife(shoot me and let me die, kill me and let me forget my children, let
me forget my wife)”, he wailed in Pidgin English.
Some days earlier, a lady
stripped to her under pants in a bank hall, demanding access to her money so
her daughter can return to school. In another bank, a man climbed the counter,
removed his top and decided to sleep there unless he was given some of his
money. In another bank hall, a machete-wielding man was said to have been
subdued.
In some cities, angry Nigerians
took to the streets in protest, leading to the burning of some ATMs and banks
buildings.
What is going on is the
undisguised sale of the Naira to buy the Naira. As at Sunday February 5, 2023
in Abuja, the Point-Of-Sale, POS, operators were charging at least 15 per cent
of whatever money customers were withdrawing.
Also, the POS in almost all fuel
stations were non-functional. I observed fuel station operators who insist on
cash, counting whatever money they make, and selling the currency to Nigerians
at 15 per cent interest rate!
The mass media reported that as
at Saturday in Lagos, N5,000 old notes attracted a N1,000 commission while
N6,000 new notes attracted as much as N2,000 commission; that is, a Nigerian is
forced to lose one third of his money just to have the Naira in his hands!
The Central Bank of Nigeria,
CBN, claimed enough new bank notes have been given to banks. It followed this
up with some clips of its officials leading security men to exposing some banks
hoarding the new notes. If this was a serious move, then over 75 per cent of
the bank managers would have been behind bars.
Meanwhile, some bank officials
are feeding the ATMs with Naira in wraps so currency cannot be dispensed. Many
banks are also debiting customers without remitting their money or reversing
the transactions. So, what is going on is the mass robbery of Nigerians with no
government or security agency to defend them.
The induced currency crisis has
crippled small businesses while the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, MAN,
says if the currency crisis persists for another three weeks, there is the
likelihood of a 25 per cent monthly drop in sale of locally produced goods.
Eleven governors elected on the
platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, on Thursday met
President Buhari to work out an urgent solution, including the concurrent use
of the old and new notes till the end of the year. Buhari, while having no
solution, requested that the current state of anarchy be allowed to continue
for another one week when the old notes would have ceased to be legal tender.
As usual, he blamed others for the failures of his government.
Thirty nine years ago, as
Military Head of State, Buhari carried out a similar currency change which was
disastrous for many Nigerians. In his 1984 album titled: ‘Owo Tuntun’ (New Money) which is now trending on the internet,
Fuji musician, Alhaji Kollington, the Kebe Kwara, sang: “I no longer understand the world. We have ended the new currency swap on May 6 (1984). The currency
change has been effected, yet we are all still hungry…A lot of people queued at
the banks for 7-8 days without being able to change to the new currency…All
times the sinner is made to pay for his sins, the innocent is also made to
suffer.”
Africans have a saying that a god that cannot better the lot of the
people, should at least not worsen it; the lot of Nigerians under Buhari has
worsened. But I am confident that collectively, we shall survive his regime.
*Lakemfa is a commentator on public
issues
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