The President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Yakubu Chonoko Maikyau, OON, SAN has called on the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari to immediately direct compliance with the terms of the orders made by the Supreme Court in its judgement delivered on 3 March 2023 in respect of the Naira redesign policy.
This was contained in a statement released by the National Publicity Secretary, Akorede Habeeb Lawal and made available to LAWHAUZ.
Kindly find attached the full statement of the NBA President in this regard.
Full Statement Below;
STATEMENT OF THE NBA PRESIDENT, YAKUBU CHONOKO MAIKYAU, OON,
SAN ON THE NAIRA REDESIGN POLICY: DEMAND FOR COMPLIANCE WITH THE JUDGEMENT OF THE SUPREME COURT IN SUIT NO.: SC/CV/162/2023 BETWEEN ATTORNEY GENERAL OF KADUNA STATE & 9 ORS. VS. ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE FEDERATION & 2 ORS. DELIVERED ON 3 MARCH 2023.
1. At the wake of the Naira redesign policy embarked upon by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), on the directive of the President, the NBA engaged in wide consultations with critical stakeholders in the country in order to assess the possible impact of the policy on the economy and the people of Nigeria. The NBA in a letter addressed to the CBN Governor dated 23 January 2023 articulated its position on the Naira Design Policy.
The NBA commended the policy as it was expected to help stem corruption, make for easy detection of the funding of terrorism/other criminal activities and limit/allay fears of politicians’ using large sums of cash to buy votes in the elections.
2. We wrote another letter dated 1 February 2023 to the CBN Governor where we requested to meet with him and clearly indicated that:
“We intend at this visit to discuss urgent legal and practical matters pertaining to the Naira Redesign and other fiscal policies with a view to working collaboratively to continue to serve the financial and economic aspirations of Nigerians. While we support the objective of the policy and offer the platform of the NBA to do whatever is within our remit in the fight to curb corruption, counterfeiting, vote buying and other criminal activities and stand with you wholly in that regard, we are concerned about the apparent hardship
currently experienced by Nigerians and it is absolutely necessary to look into that without compromising the laudable objective of the policy.”
3. In our earlier letter, we noted with concern the possibility that the implementation of the policy in the manner it was being carried out will bring more loss, stifle economic
activities, cause panic and generally result in more hardship for the same Nigerians the policy is meant to serve. The NBA, after a review of the experiences of other countries,
particularly India, Australia, EU and the United Kingdom on similar endeavours,
presented our perspectives and recommendations to the CBN Governor on the implementation of the policy. We stated that:
“Without any intention of challenging the policy which we have admitted at
the onset to be laudable, we have considered the provisions of the relevant
laws vis-a-vis the available logistical, infrastructural and man power support
required for the implementation of the policy, we are of the humble opinion that, there is a need for an urgent review. In our view, the necessary logistical, infrastructural and manpower support, required for the successful implementation of the policy are in short supply and should be greatly improved upon if they are to be leveraged for full implementation of the policy with minimal loss or economic hardship.”