As he did in 1984 when he was a military head of state, President Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) re‑introduced a naira redesign policy that has once again left a trail of death, sorrow and anguish. Deborah Tolu‑Kolawole notes that Nigerians who lived through the 1984 redesign are not surprised by the repeat of the same policy by the same man, now a civilian president.
Human‑rights lawyer Femi Falana, SAN, recalled that the 1984 redesign led to loss of life. “In 1984 the Buhari military junta changed the colour of the naira. In a country of 81 million people, bank customers and other citizens were given only two weeks to deposit old notes and replace them with new ones. The poor implementation of the policy caused loss of lives in many parts of the country,” he said.
On 23 November 2022, Buhari, together with Central Bank of Nigeria Governor Godwin Emefiele, unveiled new naira notes in denominations of N200, N500 and N1 000. When questioned by journalists, Emefiele insisted the move was not targeted at anyone; the redesigned notes were meant to give the apex bank greater control over the money supply. He also announced a deadline of 31 January 2023 for the exchange.
Following the CBN’s directives, Nigerians rushed to banks to deposit old notes. “The funny aspect was that when we went to the banks they told us they didn’t have new notes to give out. Banks would pay you both in old notes and new notes,” said Abuja point‑of‑sale operator Andrew Peter. Although the CBN claimed it had printed enough notes and supplied them to commercial banks, massive protests erupted over the scarcity of the new currency. In Benin City, Edo State, police confirmed two deaths during naira‑scarcity protests; in Delta State, two people were allegedly burnt to death; and in Ogun State, one person was reportedly shot dead. Banks and POS operators were also attacked. In Ogun State, at least two banks were set ablaze in a single day, and similar attacks were reported in Delta, Rivers, Oyo, Edo and parts of Lagos.
The unrest prompted several state governors to challenge the federal government’s decision in the Supreme Court, questioning the legality of the new notes and the deadline. The Court ruled that the old naira should remain legal tender, but weeks passed before President Buhari’s official position emerged. Known for flouting major court orders, Buhari’s silence left Nigerians uncertain about the status of the old notes, causing many to refuse them as payment.
The human cost of the crisis was stark. On 12 March 2023, 71‑year‑old broadcast journalist “Baba Binti” died in Oyo State after collapsing while trekking to work because he could not obtain new notes to board a vehicle. Human‑rights activist Oluwa Darasimi Bunmi said the death could have been avoided if the government had obeyed the Supreme Court ruling, adding that most fatalities—both from protests and after the court’s decision—were preventable.
Just days before the presidential and house‑of‑assembly elections, on 22 February, Lagos State University staff member Ademola Adesola collapsed and died while waiting in line at a Wema Bank branch in Ojo, Lagos. He had left the office at 11:30 am to withdraw cash and fell minutes later. Bunmi described the episode as “a dark period in our history” and lamented that lives and businesses suffered before the president and the CBN listened to reason.
On 12 March 2023, Femi Aina, father of National Youth Service Corps member Oreoluwa—one of the victims of the Lagos train crash—blamed lingering naira scarcity for his daughter’s death. He explained that Oreoluwa did not usually take the staff bus, but on that day she had only N200 and could not afford alternative transport. He recounted learning of the crash on television, receiving frantic calls, and rushing to Lagos only to find his daughter had already died in the ICU.
Another tragedy linked to the cash shortage occurred on 19 February 2023, when 32‑year‑old Shema’u Labaran died, along with her nine‑month‑old fetus, at Abdullahi Wase Specialist Hospital in Kano. Her husband, Bello Baffa, said the hospital refused to treat her because it would not accept old naira notes. After paying N8 500 in old notes, he was told the hospital had embargoed the old currency and would only accept payment by transfer. The delay in confirming a payment of N8 528 caused Labaran to bleed to death.
Former CBN Deputy Governor Kingsley Moghalu expressed deep dissatisfaction with the series of crises created by the naira redesign. He argued that the suffering and economic loss resulting from the policy’s faulty implementation—and the judiciary’s intrusion into central‑banking functions—show how institutions fail when politicised. Moghalu said he had no problem with the policy’s objectives but identified two critical flaws: the 90‑day deadline, which he warned was too short, and the timing, which coincided with elections. He criticised the incoherent communication of the policy’s purpose—alternately framed as a measure to curb inflation, a national‑security tool against kidnapping and hoarding, and a means to ensure “free and fair elections.” Politicians who felt targeted demanded extensions, while those who saw political advantage praised the tight deadline. Consequently, Nigerians found themselves trapped between the desire to curb vote‑buying and the effective confiscation of their money due to the policy’s botched implementation.
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