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Professor Chidi Odinkalu, the former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), described Vice President Yemi Osinbajo as an oasis of competence of thinkers who refused to put an end to the abuse of privileges that characterized President Muhammadu Buhari’s regime since 2015.
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The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to order the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed and the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to immediately withdraw the ‘final warning’ and threats to cancel licenses and close broadcast station. through post-election coverage.
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The People’s Movement for a New Nigeria (PMNN) has condemned comments made by the leadership of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) regarding the recently concluded presidential election.
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Barring any last minute changes, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) leaders will meet with the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu; his running mate, Senator Kashim Shettima; senators-elect and members of the House of Representatives-elect on their platform, today at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
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The inability of many Nigerians to access cash for their day-to-day activities has begun to negatively impact livelihoods and productivity in the real sector, while pushing many businesses in the informal sector to the margins. Currently, employers have witnessed cases of absenteeism of staff members, especially low cadre workers, because they cannot access money for transportation. Factories have also experienced reductions in shift numbers and utilization due to understaffing and poor product sales at retail outlets, while stakeholders in the informal sector have witnessed a drop in activity in recent weeks. Because many banks’ online platforms and applications continue to fail stress tests, many Nigerians are in limbo, unable to carry out the necessary transactions in cases where they choose to accept cashless payments, but they cannot access cash. Although some state governments are allegedly planning to initiate contempt proceedings against the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, and the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, for refusing to comply with the Supreme Court. judgment on the naira redesign policy of the Federal Government, the organized private sector has said that the economy has lost about N20 trillion since the cash crisis started. President Muhammadu Buhari’s silence on the apex court ruling has led to the rejection of the old N1,000 and N500 as legal tender, although sources in the CBN said the bank is still sorting through the notes. Findings by The Guardian show that in the last two weeks, the challenge of access to cash has worsened, as banks are no longer handing out cash to customers as they did in the small rations before the presidential election. This is only as a Point of Sale (POS) operator, who has continued to bridge the cash gap, is equally limited by the lack of access despite Nigerians offering to pay a premium for available cash. The Guardian gathered that many Nigerians now depend on offerings from churches and fuel station attendants to earn money to meet their daily needs and pay for transportation to work. According to the Center for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE), the N20 trillion loss suffered by the economy arose from the slowdown in economic activity, paralyzing trade activities, tightening of the informal economy, contraction in the agricultural sector and paralysis. rural economy, adding that there are also corresponding job losses in the thousands. The chief executive of the CPPE, Dr. Muda Yusuf, noted that Nigerians continue to groan in misery caused by the acute shortage of cash amid the rejection of old currency notes by market operators, refusal of banks to accept old notes, silence by the Presidency in the Supreme Court and there is no official statement by the CBN on the issue. He added that retail transactions across all sectors have become nerve-wracking and disruptive due to persistent payment system challenges. Yusuf, therefore, called on President Buhari to immediately intervene to end the difficulties caused by the currency redesign policy, adding that the lack of cash has not only harmed economic activities in the country but has now become a major risk to livelihoods. Nigerian people. “Nigerians have not been traumatized in recent history. The economy has gradually come to a standstill due to the collapse of the payment system on all platforms. Digital platforms are performing sub-optimal due to congestion; Physical cash is not available because the CBN has siphoned off more than 70 percent of cash in the economy and relief is expected from the supreme court has not happened,” CPPE said. A report by the purchasing managers index (PMI) equally shows that Nigerian companies recorded a slight loss of growth momentum in January, mentioned low demand, problems with machinery and resources, which dipped to 53.5 in January from 54.6 in December. The PMI report stated that with the CBN’s cashless policy, many businesses are finding it difficult to complete transactions due to poor access to cash and downtime in payment channels. This situation has affected many organizations as the productivity of the workers has decreased drastically, thus affecting the output. Many workers in the civil service and some private organizations stay at home because there are no transport costs to get to work. A civil servant with a family of four, at the weekend, told The Guardian how the shortage of cash affects people so badly that they cannot transport themselves to work and return. He said, “after explaining my distress to the bus operator that I don’t have money and will transfer through my bank application, he agreed. After trying several times with both bank applications, both failed and I made a fool of myself in public. Thank God they understood my situation because they allowed me to do the transaction even though I was down. From then on I stayed at home until I could access the money. A factory worker, Blessing Akachukwu, who collects N1,300 daily from his 12-hour shift at 7:00 am. to 7:00 pm, said that the organization no longer pays money but transfers every two weeks. He said that the current situation has reduced his salary drastically, because he has to use his salary to buy money, thus reducing his marriage. “I have to do it because if I stay at home, I don’t get paid. I only get paid for the days I work. Our employer doesn’t care how much I can work and the day I don’t come, the pay for that day will be deducted. When I reduce my percentage part to get cash, remove transportation and feeding costs, there is nothing left. The suffering is just too much,” he said. A supervisor at one of the factories also told The Guardian that the cash crunch made his company cancel one of the shifts, therefore, operating two shifts, morning and night. He said that his factory, which produces tomato paste, reduced its workforce because it could not meet demand, rather than a loss. He added that the low patronage had reduced its production capacity and needed to review the workforce, promising that the organization the President of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN), Tommy Okon, who said concern and pain, saying that the government’s economic advisers are failing in their capacity, which is affecting the informal sector badly. Okon said that if the situation is not resolved soon, many civil servants will remain at home because they will not have the cost of transportation to get to their workplaces. Also concerned with the current situation are operators in the food and beverage subsector, who note that many consumers are wary of spending their available cash on certain items. Former President of the National Union of Food, Beverage and Tobacco Employees (NUFBTE), Lateef Oyelekan, who said the government is torturing Nigerians with the naira redesign policy, said the sector has lost billions, as most factories have closed due to lack of patronage. . He said that if workers are not in the field to run the plant, production capacity will decrease and sales will decrease. “Many workers are out of office due to lack of transport, except for organizations that have staff buses and you know our products have an expiry date, with a shelf life of every food processing in six months. So, if we produce and do not sell, after six months we have to throw it away because has expired. The raw materials are also expired. A lot of money is lost to the tune of billions of naira. It has not helped the economy,” he said. As for businesses in Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (UMKM), the Director General of the Nigerian Entrepreneurs Consultancy Association (NECA), Adewale-Smatt Oyerinde, said that due to the policy and cash crunch, many have crashed and entered. extinct. “A business that has become your soul, you now squeeze the pipe that gives you blood and you expect absolute magic. In the informal sector, the volume of cash that is transacted every day can only be imagined. Go to the Mile 12 market and other markets and see. Because of the above did not feel that this is happening, so this situation is getting worse,” he said. The Deputy General Secretary of the Nigeria Labor Congress (NLC), Chris Onyeka, said the policy may be a conscious effort to undermine productivity across the country. “Government that is looking for ways to improve productivity and drive economic development and not take the problem of cash crisis seriously talking about the irresponsible way of managing the government in the country. Cash is fluid and when cash is emasculated, people are emasculated and productivity is also undermined. “Employees who do not have money to pay for transportation, when they wait for the bus that accepts transfers or POS, when they are late for work, they are already tired and frustrated. Such workers will not be able to focus on work. When you sit down to work, you start to feel sleepy and all you think about is how you’re going to get home. All these occupy the mind and then lose focus,” he said. Public affairs analyst, Jide Ojo, said that the administration led by President Buhari, which promised to create 10 million jobs in 10 years seems to want to take more than five million jobs before leaving in May 29, the relationship with the naira and the challenge of fuel scarcity, which has been counter-productive for the economy. Listening to the number of lives that have been lost due to the cash crisis, he said: “It is counter-productive for our economy because when you count the working hours that people spend in queues to find cash, people now line up at church account departments and gas stations to look for it. for cash. Many businesses are ready to sell on credit, even though productivity has been drastically reduced. Nigerians deserve better.