The Nigerian state governments have threatened to initiate contempt proceedings against the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele, and the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, for failing to comply with the Supreme Court judgment.
The Supreme Court ordered old N1,000, N500, and N200 to be circled alongside the new notes until December 31, 2023.
This judgment was handed down in response to a lawsuit brought by the states of Kaduna, Kogi, and Zamfara against the Federal Government of Nigeria, which had withdrawn the old notes from circulation. Despite the Supreme Court ruling, the CBN has yet to implement the judgment. CBN has even stopped disbursing old notes, even though some banks began doing so in partial compliance.
Abdulhakeem Mustapha, the lawyer representing the states, confirmed that the attorney-general had received the enrolled order and the Certified True Copy of the judgment. However, action still needs to be taken.
The governors of Kaduna, Kogi, and Zamfara, senior lawyers, and other stakeholders have called on President Muhammadu Buhari to direct Emefiele to roll out the old notes alongside the new ones to ease the scarcity of the naira that has been affecting the economy.
The Supreme Court held that Buhari breached the constitution in the way he issued directives for the redesigning of the naira. In the judgment announced by Justice Agim, the seven-member panel of the apex court believed that Buhari’s broadcast of February 16, 2023, that only the N200 note should remain legal tender, portrayed the country’s democracy as a mere pretension.
