Speaker of the house of representatives, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila, has said that the lawmakers will reconvene before the elections if the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) does not address the current acute scarcity of the naira notes.
Recall that there has been scarcity of the Nigerian naira since the CBN redesigned the N200, N500 and N1, 000 notes and asked Nigerian swap the old notes for the new ones.
Speaking at a town hall meeting with some ethnic nationalities in Lagos yesterday, Gbajabiamila said he was close to signing the warrant for the arrest of the CBN governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele before he eventually appeared before an ad hoc committee of the house. ,”
Spokesman for the lawmaker, Mr. Lanre Lasisi, quoted Gbajabiamila in a statement as saying that the house was monitoring the situation to see if the apex bank would address the scarcity of the new naira notes.
“The house of representatives intervened on several occasions. We summoned the CBN governor the first time and again, but he refused to answer, because we had many hard questions for him.
“It was until I issued the threat of a warrant of arrest before he came, and I would’ve signed that warrant; it would’ve been the first time in the history of the national assembly that a CBN governor would be arrested. I would’ve done it.
“Many have argued on the independence of CBN, the autonomy of CBN. That does not make the CBN above the law.
“The constitution gives the house the power to issue an arrest warrant against anyone. We can summon anybody, and that was exactly what the house was going to do until the CBN governor came.
“So, we are watching, and we are monitoring very closely. If need be, we will reconvene the house, even though we’ve all been away for our elections. I will call the house back, if need be,” the speaker said.
Gbajabiamila expressed dissatisfaction that many people have worked hard for their money, yet they could not access it.
He also assured the people that the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Bola Tinubu, was with them adding that he (Tinubu) was the first to sound the alarm about the naira scarcity.
“If nothing changes, we will intervene again. Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu stands with you and stands with Nigerians in their suffering.
“He was the first to shout, what is going on? He has cried; he has begged; he has screamed that people are suffering, what did the PDP candidate say? He said, ‘No, CBN, don’t listen to them; you must not extend this thing; let people continue to suffer.’ That is what the PDP candidate said. He said it publicly.
“So, you have the tale of two presidential candidates: one who stands with the people and says this currency swap must stop; the second one says, ‘no, it cannot stop, it’s a good policy.”
