Continued from last week
The Currency Scarcity
The President was made to believe that there was so much money in circulation even though the alleged figure of N3.3 trillion bandied by the CBN is about five percent of the entire money It has been disclosed that the regime was also misled to believe that the Print and Mint was capable to print enough money to replace the old notes. This was confirmed by wa Presidential Aide, Ajuri Ngelale who said, “What we are working to do is to ensure that Mr. president is given effective and true information that the reports that have been given by the Central Bank of Nigeria that they have adequately supplied all banking branches in the country with sufficient amounts of the new Naira notes, that this is absolutely false. It is evident at this point. And of course, Mr. President, being the pro people, defender of the masses that he has always been, did the right thing when the intelligence reached him that indeed, he was getting false intelligence from the Central Bank, which was to extend the deadline from January 31 to February 10.” When the APC Governors met the President last week he asked for 7 days to resolve the crisis. It is now 10 days and the President has not taken any action. We are compelled to call on the President to take a decision to avoid a complete disruption of the economy and the political transition. This cashless situation and the public angst and frustration that flow therefrom cannot be allowed to continue indefinitely. Otherwise, we will soon confront complete anarchy in which everyone will lose out. The Central Bank is alleged to have mopped up the N2.7 trillion but printed only N300 billion which has been distributed to the rich and well-connected individuals in the country. On account of the poor implementation of the policy, it is likely that the politicians who have access to billions of the new Naira notes are going to induce voters or buy votes with as little as N500 or less. Since it is now clear that enough Naira notes have not been printed the Central Bank should allow the old Naira notes to be legal tender in Nigeria. This suggestion is in line with Section 22 of the Central Bank Act which permits the replacement of old currency notes with new ones after the deadline fixed by the CBN.

Judicial Intervention in the Electoral Process
It is submitted that the failure of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to disqualify aspirants who did not participate in the party primaries. But by asking aggrieved aspirants to challenge the conduct of the party primaries INEC encourage the deluge of pre-election cases that were filed in the federal high court in the various states. The INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmoud Yakubu has disclosed that the commission has been joined in 1,241 pre-elections cases received by it as at February 6th, with over 300 at the Court of Appeal and 155 pending before the Supreme Court. In fact, the Court of Appeal has disclosed that 600 appeals arising from pre-election cases have been filed by aggrieved parties and that no provision has been made for the Justices that will hear the appeals. In the case of APC v Machina, the Supreme Court upheld the appeal and declared the Senate President, Dr. Ahmed Lawan the winner of the senatorial primary conducted in the Yobe senatorial constituency. It is submitted that the majority of pre-election cases which were commenced by originating summons in strict compliance with the Practice Directions issued by the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court are liable to be struck out. Thus, many aspirants are going to be declared candidates and authorized to contest the general elections on the basis of technicalities, even if they had not participated in the party primaries. The National Judicial Council should take urgent steps to avoid a situation whereby the courts are used to scuttle the democratic process through the issuance of questionable orders.
Denial of the right of customers to access their money
It is submitted that the denial of access to the account of a customer by a bank via the ATM when the customer has enough money in the account is a violation of the fundamental right to property and a breach of duty of care and contract. In the case of MOSES JWAN v. ECOBANK (2021) 10 NWLR (Pt. 1785) 449 at 485 per Aliyu JCA held that, “The ATM card issued by a bank being akin to a cheque, must be honoured on request once there is enough funds in the customer’s account, and failure to do that mean the bank is in breach of duty of care owed to it’s customer.” Consequently, the Court of Appeal awarded general damages of N500,000.00 (Five hundred thousand Naira) against ECOBANK for failure to pay its customer the sum of N10,000.00 (Ten thousand Naira) through the Bank’s ATM. If the current cash crisis is not resolved by the President and the CBN Management as soon as possible the country may witness a deluge of cases filed by millions of customers against commercial banks over the denial of access to their legitimate fund. If the customers are compelled to resort to litigation in the circumstance, some of the banks may be liquidated as a result of the colossal damages that may be awarded to customers by the courts for breach of contract. After all, the CBN has continued to insist that the commercial banks have been supplied with sufficient fund.
Illegality of CBN deadline of February 10
By virtue of section 22 of the Central Bank Act which provides that the CBN shall redeem old currency notes, I had said that the deadline of February 10 given by the CBN for the currency swap was not sacrosanct. And when Mr. Emefiele appeared before the House of Representatives ad hoc committee looking into the implementation of the policy on January 31 he said that commercial banks must accept the old Naira notes even after the expiration of the 10 February deadline. He has since turned round to say that only the CBN could redeem the old currency notes after the deadline. Following the ex parte order issued by the Supreme Court which extended the deadline for replacement of the old currency notes with new ones, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami SAN announced that the Federal Government would comply with the interim injunction. But in utter defiance of the order of the apex court and in contravention of section 22 of the Central Bank Act the CBN Management has decided to ignore the order of the apex court. Hence, all commercial banks have rejected the old currency notes. In misleading the CBN Management, some lawyers have insisted that apex bank is an independent institution and that it is not a party to the cases of Attorney-General of Kaduna State & 2 Ors v Attorney-General of the Federation pending at the Supreme Court. Interestingly, the Supreme Court has ruled that the CBN is an agency of the Federal Government in the case of Obiuwvera v Central Bank of Nigeria where Rhodes-Vivour JSC held that,”This suit has to do with the administration or management and control of the Federal Government. The respondent is a Federal agency and the appellant is/was its employee.
The termination of the appellant’s appointment is on administrative action by an agency of the Federal Government, the respondent.” In the same vein, in the case of Fayose v EFCC & Anor (2018) LPELR 46474(CA) the Court of Appeal dismissed the claim of that the CBN is an independent institution when Dongban-Mensem JCA (now PCA) held that, “The independent status of the 2nd Respondent touted by the Appellant is a lame link. Section 1(3) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (Establishment) Act has not been shown to be independent of the legal guidance of the Hon. Attorney-General of the Federation who is the Chief Legal Officer of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Nor was it demonstrated to the Court of trial that the independent status of the CBN takes it out of the supervisory management of the Hon. Ministry of Finance who is a Public Officer.” In view of the pronouncement of both appellate courts to the effect that the CBN is an agency of the Federal Government the provocative disregard for the valid and subsisting order of the Supreme Court by the Management of the apex court should not go unchallenged in view of section 287 of the Constitution which stipulates that, “The decisions of the Supreme Court shall be enforced in any part of the Federation by all authorities and persons, and by courts with subordinate jurisdiction to that of the Supreme Court.” Otherwise, the CBN would have set down a dangerous precedent for the subversion of the rule of law in Nigeria.
Expectations of Nigerian people after the 2023 General Elections It is unfortunate but not surprising that a number of candidates seeking political offices are not addressing the imperialist control of the resources of the nation. In particular, they have not traced the root cause of the crisis of poverty, underdevelopment, infrastructural decay, corruption, unemployment and illiteracy. The manifestoes and programmes of the candidates as well as the campaigns are not providing specific answers to the problems. Nigeria has spent over $70 billion on power supply and has generated only 5,000 megawatts. How did Egypt generate 14,000 megawatts with $9 billion in less than 3 years? Which candidate is prepared to create industrial zones with uninterrupted electricity supply for the production of all goods? How many candidates are prepared to declare their assets and allow the anti-graft agencies to function without political interference? How many candidates are prepared to actualize the provisions of the Constitution on judicial independence and financial autonomy for the judiciary? How many candidates are prepared to shun abuse of office and undertake to comply with court orders and respect the rule of law? On a daily basis, citizens are arrested and detained and forced to buy their freedom by paying for bail. Illegal detention and illegal arraignment of poor people which lead to prison congestion are a common phenomenon. Torture of and extrajudicial killing of suspects is a common occurrence. To put an end to the callous disregard for the human rights of our people there are laws that have provided for the appointment of a legal practitioner to man the human rights desk in every police station as Chief Magistrates are required to conduct monthly visits to all police stations.
How many candidates are prepared to end the illegal arrest and detention of citizens? We have unemployment rate of 45 percent. How will the candidates address the crisis of unemployment in concrete terms? Will the candidates who are asking young people to engage in farming set up modern farms equipped with farm implements and machinery? Will they group young farmers into cooperatives and empower them financially? Nigeria is also the global capital of poverty. How will each candidate deal with these problems? There are laws that have made education free and compulsory from primary school to junior secondary school for every Nigerian child. Has any candidate promised to enforce the laws to remove children from the streets and enroll them in schools? Will the Commission for Adult Literacy be reorganized to educate the over 60 million illiterates in Nigeria?
Conclusion
I wish to point out that I did not set out to scare the Catholic Bishops by listing the main problems that have arrested the development of the nation. I believe that the Catholic Bishops cannot afford to be despondent on account of the problems that have been identified in my paper. As the primus inter pares among the Churches in Nigeria, the Catholic Church owes it a duty to provide positive guidance for other faith based organisations. I wish to join Pope Francis in urging the Church to be involved in the struggle of the African people against imperialism. It is a task that can be achieved if you are prepared to embrace liberation theology. The Catholic Secretariat should collaborate with the Bishop Kukah Centre, Lux Terra Leadership Foundation led by Rev. Fr. George Ehusani and the Justice Development and Peace Commission. I suggest the setting up of a Human Rights Commission to be coordinated by the Catholic Secretariat. The proposed commission should have branches in all parishes of the Church with the main task of providing pro bono services for all victims of human rights abuse including women and children who are increasingly subjected to domestic violence in the society.
• The above are excerpts from the paper presented by Femi Falana SAN at the 2023 Plenary Meeting of the Catholic Bishops held at the Catholic Secretariat, Abuja, Federal Capital Territory on February 13, 2023.