As Nigerians and businesses continue to feel the effects of the government’s currency redesign, various narratives have emerged and are being expressed by state and non-state actors across the country. From some state governments to the federal governments, the policy is good but is being poorly implemented by the Central Bank of Nigeria and other stakeholders. After several days of engaging and discussing the implementation within the executive sphere, some of the state governments approached the judicial sphere, calling on the Supreme Court to halt the implementation process in order to reduce the pain people and businesses are expressing. The court gave its verdict after interpreting evidence from the state governments and ordering the federal government and the apex bank to stop the implementation of the policy. Despite the judgement, the bank reaffirmed its decision regarding the deadline, while the Federal Government later tweaked its position after consultation with the Council of States, saying only the N200 note should be circulated along with the redesigned N500 and N1,000.
Some state governments are still concerned about this decision. Governor Nasiru El-Rufai of Kaduna State recently communicated with the people of his state through a state broadcast. Our analyst examines his 3,016-word speech, which emphasises the position of some state governments on how the Federal government and the bank have been implementing the policy, with a specific focus on the pain less privileged citizens and small businesses are experiencing, rather than the political elites, kidnappers, and terrorists the policy primarily targets.
After subjecting his speech to discursive material knot analysis, which establishes how a speaker identifies and integrates some material elements towards revealing his position on topics of discussion, our analyst discovered that Governor El-Rufai constantly changes his position and the meaning constructed for the policy. Sometimes, the governor develops a sedimented meaning around the pain people are expressing while antagonising the federal government and the bank’s stance, saying the duo are being misled by some elements who failed to have tickets for contesting various political offices under the All-Progressives Congress (APC).
Our analysis reveals that the governor’s first statement serves as the nodal point for vigorously utilising state, new naira notes, Nigeria, and the Interim National Government as the discursive material knots for establishing his position that the elements in the federal government are working towards foisting an Interim National Government on the people. He also believes that politicians already have access to several million of the new notes. This suggests that policy implementers are not doing enough to restrict politicians’ access to the new notes.
Nodal Point Statement
With just about 100 days before leaving office, and elections just round the corner, it was my intention to host another media chat to interact with the people of our state in the next few days. While I still hope to do so, I feel the need to address you all today due to the unprecedentedly cruel situation our people and their livelihoods have been thrown into, particularly in the last two to three weeks by the decisions, actions and inactions of the Federal Government of Nigeria.
Exhibit 1: Interconnectivity of Elements with the Nodal Point Statement
State
I am referring here to the comments by the candidate of one of the opposition parties who expressed opposition to the recommendation first of the APC state governors, and subsequently of all the governors under the auspices of the Nigeria Governors Forum that the implementation timeline be extended, to enable the old and new notes to be legal tender side by side until the cash shortage ends.
New Naira Notes
Yet, the politicians that the officials have convinced the President to regard as the real targets of the currency redesign policy have not been impeded in any way by it so far. Indeed, two of the presidential candidates, and a running mate of the opposition parties own or have preferred access to some of the licensed banks. For that reason and by various clandestine arrangements, these politicians have access to hundreds of millions of these new notes, while the traders, merchants, students and other citizens are queuing for days to withdraw a few thousand Naira just to buy food and necessaries.
Nigeria
There is no reason why the old notes and the new notes should not coexist until the old notes are gradually withdrawn over the years as is done in the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia and other countries. It is unfortunate that in implementing this policy, Nigeria is departing from global best practise, without any compelling justification. The Kaduna State Government did all these, not in opposition to any person or authority, but because we stand with our people and their interests.
Interim Government
Ensure that the cash crunch is so serious, along with the contrived and enduring fuel shortage existing since September 2022, that the 2023 Elections do not hold at all, leading to an Interim National Government to be led by a retired Army General.
Exhibit 2: Discursive Material Knots
