On Wednesday, President Muhammadu Buhari unveiled the re-designed Naira Notes, three weeks earlier than originally scheduled.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had earlier picked December 15 for the unveiling of the redesigned N200, N500 and N1,000 notes. But the apex bank announced Tuesday that the launch has been fast-tracked to Wednesday Nov. 23, to make more time for the old notes to be returned to the banks.

President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday in Abuja launched the new Naira banknotes, expressing delight that the redesigned currencies are locally produced by the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting (NSPM) PLC. pic.twitter.com/zSTaMY6AYG

— Government of Nigeria (@NigeriaGov) November 23, 2022

The naira’s redesign, which marks the first time in 19 years that Nigeria is redesigning its currency notes, has been criticized as a witch hunt by the central bank. But the financial regulator said the decision is, among other things, to curtail the amount of cash outside the banks’ vaults.

The CBN governor Godwin Emefiele said at a briefing after the ceremony before the Federal Executive Council meeting, that the naira notes redesign is not a means to target some people.

Emefiele said members of the public need to desist from making such speculation as there is no need to perpetuate any such information. He added that the CBN will intensify the monitoring process and interrogate the process of withdrawals.

Emefiele disclosed that there will be heavy restriction on the volume of cash that people can withdraw over the counter, as it works with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to monitor the purpose of any heavy transactions.

The CBN said one of the reasons it took on the task to redesign the naira notes after 19 years is to quell counterfeiting. Emefiele said the redesigned currency note can never be counterfeited. He added that to forestall such occurrence, the CBN will redesign the notes after every five to eight years, according to global best practices.

The CBN had earlier noted that the naira redesign will aid its push for financial inclusion, boosting cashless economic policies. Emefiele said as the redesigned naira notes go into circulation today, it underscores the CBN’s determination to make Nigeria a cashless economy like in other climes.

Buhari also highlighted the importance of redesigning the naira notes during the ceremony. He said parts of the benefits are; addressing issue of illicit financial flows, corruption, improving Nigeria’s economy as well as lifting the naira’s value.

The president also noted that the currency redesign will also boost the CBN’s Monetary policy initiative. According to him, the first set of currency which was printed locally by the Nigeria printing and minting company, will fundamentally prevent counterfeiting of the naira notes.

The CBN governor said earlier that as at the end of September 2022, N2.73 Trillion out of the N3.23 trillion currency in circulation, was outside the vaults of commercial banks across the country, and supposedly held by the public. This is believed to have impacted the value of the currency.

Apparently, the central bank moved to redesign the naira in hope that it will force the currency hoarders to return cash to the banks.

I took time to block some people today on LinkedIn and gave them their rights to avoid reading me. I mean, if reading this village boy from Abia State confuses their lives, the only antidote I can offer is to prevent them from the pains. So, they are out of our space here – and I am sure they feel very great.

Since I published a non-classified poll that Obi was leading,  many people have written, accusing me of spreading Igbo propaganda. Nextier, which conducted this poll, presented it on many leading Nigerian televisions and most of the major newspapers carried it. Premium Times was my source as I linked in the post.

As I write, I do not know whether Nextier was founded by a guy in my village or from Atiku or Tinubu’s village. I only referenced a poll. I like to return fire for fire and I have done so very well.  The idea is that any person who likes this poll is an Igbo person – and Igbo people hate APC. Common on – my senator, House Rep, State Assembly are all APCs. In other words, in my Abia State village, all the elected officials are APC members!

I think I am fair, balanced and factual when I write here. In the history of the Nigerian presidential elections since 1999, this is the first time South East Nigeria is excited about a candidate from that region. If Rochas or Ikpeazu is Obi, I can assure you that no person will care. If Obi excites them, what is wrong with it? Why must commenting on a national poll be tribalized? Why must an author’s name be the focus instead of his or her thesis? If you have a poll where Tinubu has won by 100% and Guardian and Premium Times have published it, share; I will run it. I do not break news; I only analyze broken news. That ensures smarter people have vetted and eliminated the noise before I come around!

As I have written, the best poll is the election. But before that happens, people should grow up. Among Obi, Atiku and Tinubu, only one will move into Aso Rock. Unless we are conditioned with civility, we will lose the nation. I am so thankful for the feature of blocking, whenever I see people distressed by my writing, I offer one medical treatment which has worked: I block them so that they can have peace. Of course, I want everyone here even as I treasure my Igbo heritage.

Debate me, challenge my thesis, question my data, etc, but do not be fixated with my name and my heritage. If your idea is superior, we adopt it. If you do not follow that model, you are a democracy unbeliever. In democracy, the best idea should win.

As I have written, the best poll is the election. Debate me, challenge my thesis, etc, but do not be fixated with my name and my heritage. I am an Igbo – and that is physics. If you read me that his name is Ndubuisi, you will have problems. But if you read him as Wazobia, you will enjoy this feed. I want 8 billion citizens of the world to follow me here and I am working on that!

Nigerian Presidency is Wide Open As Mobile Internet Could Disintermediate Old Political Structures

Many writers, columnists, researchers, political activists, economists, financial experts, lobbyists, etc have been on this same topic since the 60s, of how financially and economically prudent it is for Nigeria to slash down the cost of governance but unfortunately, nothing has been done about it till date.

I am just here to lend my two-piece, hoping that the government decision and policymakers find it note-worthy.

Aside from corruption, one of the plagues facing Nigeria is the mismanagement of resources which is what has landed the country into this current state of economic quagmire. Nigeria is currently in a deep economic crisis and what a prudent manager or entrepreneur will do when his company is facing harsh economic realities is to cut down the cost of the day to do management of the company which starts from the retrenchment of some workers that can be done away with at the time being, reduction of frivolous spending, placing on hold some project that are not essential or that are not of immediate importance; focus only on essential projects. whenever the company recovers, they can now go back to their extravagant lifestyle if they so wish.

Every top-tier company in the world adopted this method when they are facing strict economic conditions; billion dollar companies like Amazon, Meta (Facebook), and even Twitter are currently retrenching thousands of their workers worldwide in order to cut down their cost of management and stir themselves out from loss back to profitability. This is what is taught in business and economics schools and it is as well commonsensical as you do not need to be an alumnus of London Business school to know this.

For instance, during the public presentation of the Federal Government of Nigeria’s budget proposal for 2022 and 2021 budget implementation rundown, the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed revealed that in the first eight months of 2021, the country recorded the revenue of N3.93 trillion but  N8.14 trillion has already been expended. N2.87 trillion was spent on debt service while N2.57 trillion was spent on Personnel costs, including Pensions.

There is no country or company that can ever survive the long-term run if the expenditure keeps exceeding their revenue; that company will fold up in no distant time.  According to the Nigerian Minister of Finance, in the first 8 months of 2021, N3.93 trillion was earned in revenue but a whopping sum of N2.57 trillion was spent on just recurrent expenditure of payment of salaries, pensions, gratuities, etc. I do not need to have a bogus degree in economics or finance to predict that the country is heading toward economic and financial doom, worse than what we already are.

The fact speaks for itself that there are a lot of recurrent expenditures that are not justifiable, hence the need to be cut off in totality and there are some expenditures, although essential but are excessive, hence the need to be curtailed and there are also some recurrent expenditures that are although essential but are not of immediate importance, hence the need to be placed on hold for the time being.

Some government agencies and parastatals need to be merged; for instance, the Federal Road Safety Corps and the Vehicle Inspection Office need to be merged. They carry out functions that are not so distinguishable from each other and sometimes their duties overlap. Some ministries as well need to be merged, while some need to be scrapped totally. There is also no justification that there will be three senators representing one state in the senate chambers considering the amount it costs the country to service one Senator on a monthly basis. The number of House of Representatives members from each state needs to be looked into as well.

There is a lot of personnel in government agencies and ministries who are just there loitering around and it is clear that they do not have a clear assignment and are of no use to the government as their employer.

Once most of the “not so useful” personnel is retrenched, it will not just save more money for the government, but it will also speed up the decision-making process in government agencies and also cut down the unnecessary bureaucratic protocols that are employed before decisions are made in government offices.

Be it as it may, there is no gainsaying that the opportunity cost for this act of cutting down the cost of governance by letting go of some “not so useful” government personnel is that it will increase the unemployment rate and also reduce the government earnings in tax but the way to get it right is to pump the money that will be saved up from cutting down cost directly into the private sector and make the economy more enabling for the SMEs to thrive. In every country of the world where capitalism or mixed economy is practiced, the number one employer of labour is the private sector and never the government. 

Governance is not as difficult as those in the whims of power make it seem; some policymakers no doubt know these basics things to do but the bureaucracies and un-wanton protocols won’t let them do the right thing.