Afenifere, a pan-Yoruba social and political group, has said that President Muhammadu Buhari’s seven-day request to solve problems caused by a lack of cash in the country is too long.

In a press release signed by the organization’s National Publicity Secretary, Comrade Jare Ajayi, on Saturday, Afenifere said that the 7-day request seems to show that President Buhari “does not appreciate the enormity and the intensity of the pains Nigerians are going through all in attempts to obtain cash from their accounts in banks across the country”.

It said that several lives had already been lost and that social and economic life had been severely slowed down. “For the nation to have to wait for another seven days is to say that the people can continue to go on suffering. That lives can continue to be lost and that businesses can continue to be crippled”.

You may remember that President Buhari said he would decide “one way or the other” in the seven days left until the new deadline for the currency exchange. His spokesman, Garba Shehu, says that Buhari said this last Friday at the State House after meeting with members of the Progressive Governors Forum. (The Forum is made up of the governors of the states where the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, is in charge.)

The governors met with the President to tell him how hard it is for Nigerians to get money out of the banks and exchange old Naira bills for new ones. The Central Bank of Nigeria changed the look of the N1,000, N500, and N200 bills in October of last year. It said the old bills had to be replaced by new ones by January 31, 2023. But by then, millions of Nigerians would not have been able to change their money. Not because they didn’t want to or didn’t try hard enough. They couldn’t get the new bills because the commercial banks that were supposed to give them the bills said the Central Bank didn’t give them enough.

It was reported that the Progressive Governors Forum had asked the President to change his mind because the policy was threatening the “good records of the administration in transforming the economy.” As of when this statement is made, there has been no sign that the President is ready to “act quickly.”

This is why Afenifere told the President to “act fast because lives and economies of Nigerians are seriously in danger as a result of the difficulties in getting cash and fuel.”

Afenifere pointed out that it took the President about six months to put together his cabinet during his first term and that his administration is known for dragging its feet when decisive action is needed. This is why some people call the President “Baba Go-Slow.”

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The group’s spokesman said that the current situation “requires urgent, well-thought-out, and pro-people steps to end the avoidable suffering of the people.”

Nigerians complained so much that the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, had to ask President Buhari for permission to push back the deadline to February 10, 2023. This happened last Sunday. But even so, Nigerians have had a hard time getting their banks and other places that deal with cash to give them the new currency notes and the old ones. Things got so bad that people in some cities across the country held protests. At least two people died in Ibadan last Friday because of the protest.

Bank customers talk about negative experiences that have happened to them. One customer wanted to take out N40,000, but he was told the most he could take out was N4,000. Last week, CBN gave an absurd order that no one should take out more than N20,000 daily. This amount is not enough in many parts of the country to support even small businesses. It is also not enough for people who want to travel long distances within the country.

Nigerians’ frustration made it clear that their feelings were running high. There was a lot of tension in places like Ibadan, Benin, Port Harcourt, Abuja, Bauchi, Lagos, etc. Even though Mr Emefiele said that “the exercise has achieved a success rate of over 75 per cent of the N2.7tn held outside the banking system,” this happened. And that “Nigerians in the rural areas, villages, the aged and vulnerable have had the opportunity to swap their old notes.” On Sunday, January 29, 2023, he said this while announcing that the deadline would be moved to February 10.

Ajayi then asked why, if the exercise had been successful 75% of the time by the end of January, the problem was still so bad that people were dying a week later. Afenifere also slammed the CBN Governor for saying that “Nigerians in the rural areas, villages, the aged, and the vulnerable have had the opportunity to swap their old notes.” If this were true, Afenifere asked, “Why is there so much anguish in the land?”

The spokesman then told Bank employees and others trying to ruin the system to stop, saying, “What goes around comes around.” He said this because there were reports that some commercial banks in places like Port Harcourt, Bauchi, Lagos, etc., were hoarding the new money and that their employees wouldn’t put the notes in the ATMs.

He said President Buhari should be brave and tell the CBN to flood the banks with new notes and let the old and the new ones stay in circulation for at least the next three months.