A legal practitioner and financial analyst, Tilewa Oyefeso on Thursday said the bill before the National Assembly, seeking to amend the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) act is the most important in the history of the country.
Speaking as a guest on Channels Television’s breakfast programme, Sunrise Daily, Mr Oyefeso said it is wrong to allow just one person decide the fate of Nigerians in terms of currency in use.
Citing section 17, 20 and 22 of the CBN act which says “The bank shall have the sole right of issuing currency notes and coins throughout Nigeria and neither the Federal Government nor any State Government, Local Government, other person or authority shall issue currency notes, bank notes or coins or any documents or tokens payable to bearer on demand being document or token which are likely to pass as legal tender.
“The bank shall arrange for the printing of currency notes and the minting of coins; issue, re-issue and exchange currency notes and coins at the bank’s offices and at such agencies as it may, from time to time, establish or appoint; arrange for the safe custody of un-issued stocks of currency notes and for the preparation, safe custody and destruction of plates and paper for the printing of currency notes and disc for the minting of coins; and arrange for the destruction of currency notes and coins withdrawn from circulation under the provisions of section 20 (3) of this Act or otherwise found by the bank to be unfit for use.”
Mr Oyefeso said the National Assembly’s ambition to take back the powers vested on the governor of the CBN is the motive of the lawmakers to seek an amendment of the act that established the bank.
“There is a contest for power; the National Assembly, they want to take back that power. There has always been this conflict which may eventually be resolved by the Supreme Court,” he said.
