The plenary session at the senate got rowdy on Wednesday as senators debate the naira redesign exercise by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.
It will be recalled that the apex bank had on October 26 announced that circulation of the newly redesigned N100, N200, N500 and N1000 naira notes would begin on December 15.
CBN governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele had added that the move was to counter terrorism financing, hoarding of banknotes by members of the public, with statistics showing that over 85 per cent of monies in circulation were outside the vaults of the commercial banks.
Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed had however while responding to questions from members of the Senate Committee on Finance during 2023 budget defence session, said her ministry was not involved.
Team@orientactualmags.com learned that while debating the motion sponsored by Senator Uba Sani on Wednesday, some lawmakers including Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, had called for the extension of the deadline for the acceptance of the current naira notes from January 31, 2023 to April 30, 2023 submitting that the deadline was too short.
Kalu asked the senate to invite the CBN governor to expand on reasons for coming up with the naira redesign exercise while also persuading him to extend the deadline.
Senator Gabriel Suswan however disagreed with Kalu and others, saying the CBN Governor does not honour Senate invitations while urging his colleagues to ignore the CBN policy and let the country damn the consequences.
Senator Bassey Akpan however suggested that the senate should support the CBN Governor adding that there should be no discussion on the matter.
Lawmakers seeking the extension of the deadline forcibly promoted their line of argument making things to become rowdy and it took time before the Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege, who presided over the plenary session, could have the chamber restored to a state of normalcy.
The Senate eventually resolved to provide legislative support for the naira redesign exercise but asked the CBN to embark on an aggressive awareness campaign especially in the rural areas to ensure that all Nigerians will become aware of the new policy- Team@orientactualmags.com Do you have any information you wish to share with us? Do you want us to cover your event or programme? Kindly send SMS to 08059100286, 09094171980. Thank you
