Sultan cries out: Naira crisis has brought hunger, anger

The protracted naira crisis has caused hunger and anger in the land, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar, lamented yesterday.

He urged President Muhammadu Buhari to address the problem to prevent an uprising.

The new naira scarcity has been worsened by the refusal of banks to accept the deposit of old notes.

As a result, many businesses yesterday insisted on only new notes.

But, lawyers said it amounted to contempt for the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) not to have directed banks to continue to accept the old notes in line with the Supreme Court order.

Last Wednesday, the Supreme Court, in a case filed by Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara states, barred the Federal Government or CBN from enforcing the February 10 deadline for the use of old naira notes.

In a unanimous ruling by a seven-member panel, led by Justice John Okoro, it held that the “interim injunction” will subsist “pending the hearing and determination of the plaintiffs/applicants’ motion on notice for interlocutory injunction.”

Worried by the naira crisis, the Sultan said it has made life unbearable.

He said there was increasing tension caused by the CBN monetary policy, adding that urgent steps should be taken to stem the heat.

The Sultan spoke in Abuja at a two-day conference by the Kano State government on livestock reforms and mitigation of associated conflicts.

The royal father said: “Let’s keep politics aside. The issues of development, especially for the common man, (should be prioritised).

“These people that God Almighty gave leadership over, one day, God forbid, will rise (against us).

“After all the English by professors (at the conference), how do we get these developments down to the common man who is a farmer, the common Fulani man who doesn’t know anything about development? He only cares about cattle. Vanguard