President Goodluck Jonathan has agreed to stop move by the Central Bank of Nigeria to introduce N5000 notes and restructure lower denominations, Daily Trust learnt in Abuja yesterday.
The president made pledge at a meeting he held with National Assembly leaders led by Senate President David Mark and Speaker of the House of Representatives Aminu Waziri Tambuwal at the Presidential Villa on Tuesday night.
On resumption from recess Tuesday, the two chambers separately adopted resolutions calling on the president to halt the N5000 note plan, saying the Central Bank governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi was misleading him on the matter.
But the Central Bank said yesterday that it had not received any directive from the president to halt planned introduction of the N5000 note and restructuring the lower denomination.
The Director, Corporate Communications Department of the CBN, Mr. Okoroafor Ugochukwu, when contacted said: "We are not aware of any such directive." He failed to make further comments.
Sources in the National Assembly told Daily Trust that, few hours after the resolutions were adopted on Tuesday, Jonathan invited the National Assembly leaders to the presidential villa for a meeting over the issue.
"The President told them (Mark and Tambuwal) that he will ask the CBN governor to halt the decision in line with the resolutions of the legislature," the source said.
"According to the third schedule of the 1999 constitution as amended, any resolution that is passed by any chamber and concurred to by the other is binding on the executive to implement as it carries the force of law like an Act of parliament. Therefore, neither the President nor the CBN governor can refuse to abide by the resolutions as passed on Tuesday," the source said.
Not until the resolution of the National Assembly on Tuesday, the Federal Government had stood its ground to support the bid by the CBN to introduce N5, 000 notes and convert the N5, N10 and N20 notes to coins.
Minister of National Planning, Dr. Usman Shamsudeen gave the hint to that effect early this about two weeks ago after a meeting of the Economic Management Team (EMT), saying the endorsement of the N5000 note by the EMT followed the approval of President Jonathan.
"Obviously, the discussion today was basically to endorse. Mr. President had already approved; that is the only requirement by law. The CBN is to propose and Mr. President is to approve. And since Mr. President has approved, really what is important is to just explain. I personally had some concerns about the coins but since some discussion with the CBN governor, he has actually clarified that even the media didn't get it", the minister said.
But the National Assembly members said the CBN governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi was leading the President astray on the matter, because the views expressed by many economists indicate that the policy "would cause inflation, reduce purchasing power, lead to currency devaluation and widen the gap between the rich and the poor."
Adopting a motion of urgent national importance moved by the chairman of the Senate Committee on Rules and Business, Senator Ita Solomon Enang (PDP, Akwa Ibom North-East), the Senate said CBN Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi was leading Jonathan astray by proposing such a policy.
The upper chamber, which had earlier gone for a two-hour closed door session, also resolved not to conduct any public hearing on the issue.
Describing the introduction of the proposed N5,000 note as unnecessary, Senate President David Mark said the Federal Government should be humble enough to reverse the decision since Nigerians have expressed anger at it.
"The wishes of the people should be considered before any policy is put in place. The important thing is that if Nigerians say they don't want a particular policy at any given moment, there is no harm in the government retracting its stand on it," the Senate President said.
Mark said he failed to be convinced by the arguments of those supporting the move as they appear to be "highly theoretical and technical in nature and do not address any practical issue on ground."
"Any policy that does not address issues directly but just talks about indices we cannot verify for now should wait," the Senate President stressed.
At the House of Representatives, the lawmakers directed its committee on Banking and Currency to investigate the planned restructuring and report back in four weeks.
In the same vein, the Committee on Banking was further asked to commence urgent process of amending the CBN Act with a view to making it mandatory for the National Assembly to have input into the introduction and or restructuring of the nation's currency in the future.
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