Posted by By RAZAQ BAMIDELE on
The planned restructuring of the naira announced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Professor Chukwuma Soludo on Tuesday generated mixed reactions from Nigerian politicians, some of who described the idea as a welcome development while others said it was senseless.
•Afenifere hails him
The planned restructuring of the naira announced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Professor Chukwuma Soludo on Tuesday generated mixed reactions from Nigerian politicians, some of who described the idea as a welcome development while others said it was senseless.
Soludo, while addressing governors, deputy governors, some legislators and media executives had announced that the highest currency from August 1, 2008 would be N20. But while reacting to the plan , the Action Congress, (AC) called for immediate sack of the economic team of which Soludo is a member, describing the development as "policy somersault."
In a statement signed by the party's National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, AC accused Soludo of "inconsistency" which it said would lead to dumping of the new currencies recently printed at huge costs to the tax payers, observing that the idea "will deal a big blow to the country's tottering economy."
Speaking in the same vein, a social critic and maverick politician, Senator Joseph Waku saw "nothing economic about it" regretting that "it will make things worse in Nigeria."
Waku who asserted that "the policy will not give Nigerians purchasing power" argued that "the idea will not make any difference," while condemning it as senseless.
According to him, Soludo was just trying to bring dollar closer home as currency for the proposed African United Nations, pointing out that even with the dollar "a graduate in USA takes home about 3,000 dollars while his Nigerian counterpart takes home N25,000 which is about 200 dollars."
Supporting Waku's line of argument was the founder, leader and presidential candidate of the National Action Council, (NAC) Dr Olapade Agoro, who also asked Soludo to resign with immediate effect.
According to Agoro, the CBN governor has not allowed N1,000 and N500 bills he printed with huge sum of money to realize the economic objective of their existence which he put at 12 years, insisting that "in developed countries, Soludo's head would have been asked for immediately."
While describing the proposed restructuring of the naira as very inconsistent with monetary policy, Agoro added that such policy could work in a country where there was industrial growth, noting that Nigeria's industrial sector produce at 23 per cent capacity and contribute only 2.4 per cent to the external reserves.
However, the CBN governor has backers in Senator Ganiyu Olanrewaju Solomon and the pan-Yoruba socio-cultural and political organization, Afenifere, that described Soludo's idea as right step in the right direction.
While the National Publicity secretary of Afenifere, Yinka Odumakin said the policy would strengthen the naira and reduce the volume of cash being carried around, Senator Solomon said Soludo meant well for the nation, adding that the legislature would study it to make sure it was in the best interest of the nation.
The Afenifere scribe who blamed devaluation of the naira for reducing the currency to the level of tissue paper, gave kudos to Soludo saying, "I think it is in the best interest of the country."
But the AC spokesman, Lai Mohammed, who condemned the policy further lambasted the CBN governor for "misleading the nation by tagging the planned change re-denomination," emphasizing that what the CBN planned to do is "decimatization."
Even the idea, according to Mohammed, was not Soludo's original idea, pointing out that "a team of independent economic experts presented it to the economic team of which Soludo is a member over two years ago."
Mohammed who insisted that inflation has not gone down as claimed by Soludo, queried: "why re-denominate if the inflation has been going down ?"