A lawyer, Chief Malcolm Omirhobo, is currently battling the Central Bank of Nigerian court over what he called Arabic inscription on the naira note.
He is also tackling the Nigerian Army over the ‘Arabic’ inscription on their logo.
He, on Monday, urged a Federal High Court in Lagos, to order the removal of the inscriptions as he considers their appearances as unconstitutional.
Omirhobo noted that the Arabic inscriptions on the naira note violated sections 10 and 55 of the Nigerian Constitution, which make the country a secular state.
He thus urged the court to stop the CBN from further approving, printing and issuing naira notes with Arabic inscriptions, bearing in mind that Nigeria is a secular state.”
Besides, he urged the court to order the CBN to replace the Arabic inscriptions with either English language, which is the country’s official language, or any of Nigeria’s three main indigenous languages – Hausa, Yoruba or Igbo.
Responding through one Abiola Lawal, however, the CBN maintained that contrary to Omirhobo’s claim “the Ajami inscriptions on some of the country’s currencies do not connote any religious statements or Arabian alignment.”
It stated:
“The inscriptions on the country’s currencies do not and at no time have they threatened the secular statehood of the nation nor have they violated the Constitution of Nigeria, as every design and inscription was finalised with the approval of the relevant government bodies,” the apex bank said.
“The naira notes retained the inscriptions with Ajami since 1973 when the name of the Nigerian currency was changed to naira from pounds.
“The Ajami was inscribed on the country’s currency by the colonialists to aid those without Western education in certain parts of the country, who, back then, constituted a larger part of the populace.
“The Ajami is not a symbol or mark of Islam but an inscription to aid the populace uneducated in Western education in ease of trade.”
The army too is urging the judge to disregard the lawyer’s prayer.
