Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, has gone to court to challenge what he described as the ‘’illegal'' floating of the Naira by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Recall that on June 14, at a time when the Naira traded between 730 and 755 to the dollar at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window, the apex bank reportedly told Deposit Money Banks to freely float the naira against the dollar and other international currencies.
Section 20 (5) of the Act also provides that anybody who spends any other currency in Nigeria without the approval of the central bank has committed an offence “and shall be prosecuted”, he explained, adding, “The penalty is six months’ imprisonment.”
Falana argued further that as long as government officials are not prepared to strengthen the naira and make it the only legal tender in Nigeria, “we’re not going to go far”.
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria also commented on the Federal Government’s approval of N5 billion for each state and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). While the National Economic Council (NEC) said this enabled them to procure food items for distribution to the poor in their respective states, Falana argued that the measures were diversionary.
“They are temporary measures. Some of them are quite diversionary and the people in government have not addressed the root of the crisis, which is the dollarisation of the economy. Whatever palliatives that are announced will be eaten up by dollarisation of the economy.” he said