- – true stories
I found a fine couple looking stranded at this filling station. The man approached and while exchanging pleasantries, we compared notes of our woes at the hands of the poorly implemented monetary policy. He told me he was looking for how to get even if it is 600 naira that will cover for transport fare for him and his wife to and fro the market. They are hoping to shop via bank transfer. I told him I had not touched a single naira note for the past two weeks and that I was stranded at the supermarket inside the filling station waiting for my transfer to be confirmed for over 45 minutes so I can leave with the few groceries I could purchase. We grimaced in unison and wished each other well as I walked back into the mart hoping that my transfer had gone through. Luckily it had. At least two of the transfers I made.
So, I took the groceries that covered the ones they had confirmed, took the manager’s number and left hurriedly to see if I could catch up with another appointment.
My wife had told me that the previous day when she went to the market, they had told her she must pay cash. And the POS agents insisted that they would charge 50 percent of any amount she wanted to get cash for. I restrained myself from sharing that information to my friend. It would have worsened his state of mind.
The horror of what the poor implementation of the new money policy is causing Nigerians especially the masses who make up the bulk of the population cannot be properly described in one piece.
The previous day was February 17, the deadline for submission of our old 500 and 1000 naira note, that is in one of the many conflicting directives coming simultaneously from the CBN, the Supreme Court and the FG. I had casually called my brother who ran a filling station to know if still had old notes and to get him to rush to CBN branch in Awka before the deadlines elapsed. I found he still had over 200 thousand naira in 500 naira and 1000 naira notes. I had to rush off to pick him and take him to CBN. When we got there, we were turned back by one man who said he was a CBN staff after he confirmed we did not have up to 500,000 naira. According to him, the CBN had given another directive to banks to start accepting the old notes from customers as long as it was not up to 500,000 naira.
Imagine my disgust the next morning when I got a twitter notification and it read that the CBN had denied giving the aforementioned directive. I searched through my phone and various media houses repeated the same horrible news. I drove out to run some morning errands and business deals and I saw people flooding the CBN branch and all the banks. I shook my head in disbelief. Nigerians are indeed at the mercy of Emefiele. We are seeing the real shege banza!
