President Muhammadu Buhari and the Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Godwin Emefiele, remained adamant on Saturday over the January 31 deadline for the validity of the old 200, 500 and 1,000 naira notes.
In the Second Republic political parlance that captured the late Ladoke Akintola’s flat refusal to step down for the late Obafemi Awolowo as the Western Nigeria, Buhari and Emefiele have practically taku-ed.
This is in spite of the ordeals many Nigerians are facing trying to change the old notes to the redesigned ones, which are not readily available at banks.
The CBN on its verified Twitter page, insisted on Saturday evening that the January 31, 2023 deadline remains.
Reposting a video of the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, from the just concluded Monetary Policy Committee meeting, the apex bank said, “Deadline for the return of old series of 200, 500 and 1000 naira notes remains January 31 2023.”
While in the video posted Emefiele said, “Unfortunately, I don’t have good news for those who feel we should shift the deadline, my apologies.
“The reason is because, just like the president has said more than two occasions and even to some people privately, 100 days is more than enough for anybody who has the old currency to deposit it in the banks. And we took every measure to ensure that all the banks were and are still open to accept deposits.”
On his part, Buhari said the deadline was targetted at corrupt people and terrorism financiers.
