Stephen Ukandu, Umuahia
Coalition of South-East Youth Leaders, COSEYL, has threatened to stage a five million-man protest at the headquarters of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, over scarcity of new currency notes.
The apex socio-political youth group in South-East geopolitical zone, expressed frustration that despite efforts by members of the public to comply with the CBN directives on the new currency notes, they are still not in circulation.
COSEYL in a statement by its President General, Goodluck Ibem, called on the CBN, Governor Mr. Godwin Emefiele, to extend the deadline for the use of old naira notes.
“The 31 January deadline when there is no new naira notes in circulation is wicked and a well calculated plot by APC to weaponise poverty as many Nigerians will be poorer given 31 January deadline,” COSEYL said in a statement.
Continuing it said: “The new naira note introduced by the CBN is a well calculated plot to scam and defraud Nigerians of their hard earned money.
“The ATMs nationwide and banks don’t have the new notes introduced and the CBN is saying 31 January is the deadline for the old notes to cease being a legal tender in Nigeria.
“It is very disappointing to note that over 80% of Nigerian population have not seen the new currency or denomination of the new naira notes and about 50% of Nigerian population in the rural areas have not heard about the new naira notes and some of them in the rural areas who are told about the new naira notes just dismiss it by a wave of the hand saying how can you use what you have not seen before or heard about before. It is really troubling.
“About 90% of the Nigerian commercial banks don’t have the new naira notes in their Banks. The banks ATMs don’t have any money at all in them because of the new directive by the CBN that only new naira notes will be in the ATM machines. So because of the non-availability of the new naira notes in their Banks, the ATM machines have been empty for the past one week.
“Businessmen and women have been finding it very difficult to do business or buy basic necessities they need for their day-to-day activities.
“The whole exercise to stop the usage of old naira notes when there is no new notes in circulation looks like a well-calculated attempt to impoverish Nigerians so that they will be gullible, poor and hungry during the 2023 general election, which will make them easily bribed by the APC to vote for their party.”
The group claimed that the January 31 deadline by the CBN for the old notes to cease being a legal tender “is an easy way to weaponise poverty and force APC down the throat of Nigerians.”
“We want the CBN Governor to visit his own village and visit 50 households. He will be shocked to discover that the people have not seen the new notes since it was introduced by CBN.
“We therefore put the CBN on notice that if it fails to extend the deadline as demanded by Nigerians who are the real owners of Nigeria, we will mobilise Nigerians from the 36 states and the FCT Abuja to embark on a 5 million-man protest at the CBN headquarters and we will not stop until our demands are met.”
