 We're back. It's still the breakfast on plus CBA Africa the Central Bank of Nigeria as you may have had last night Has directed commercial banks to dispense And receive old narrow notes as legal tender Across the country the Central Bank of Nigeria gave the directive at a bankers committee meeting held on Sunday According to a statement by the acting director of CBN corporate communications Issa Abdul Moomin on Monday this statement was released on Monday now This is coming hours after the presidency Monday evening said that the CBN had no reason to comply with the ruling of a supreme court on The narrow redesign policy stated that the president Muhammad Buhari did not instruct the CBN governor Go in the mayor fairly and her attorney general of the federation of Boba Kramala mean to disobey Any court orders involving the government and other parties? That was what the statement is quoted as saying now the apex bank in a statement However, titled old two hundred five hundred and one thousand narrow bank notes remain legal tender The CBN said the directive was in compliance with Buhari's administration's obedience to court orders I'm glad to say Joining us to analyze this development is a lawyer legal practitioner show la la mean show la la mean good morning to you Thank you very much for your time Well, the the the presidency released a statement last night yesterday evening saying the president had not ordered Not directed Attorney general of the federation in minutes of justice a book of Malami as a yen and the central banks governor Called the Mifflin to disobey court order But the question some are asking is did the president give them a marching order to obey the court order? It's a bit confusing for some people out there. What do you think? But No, but so go ahead Yes, we can hear you loud and clear go ahead with your thoughts Access Well, I'd also like to ask if you I mean according to what you said the CBN You know the ruling of the Supreme Court, they need an extra directive maybe from the CBN or the president then what exactly Was responsible for the non-compliance To that particular ruling from this Supreme Court Even the other even the other They will see how to hear from the principle of the boss Don't forget that when the issue of a special team came up, it was present as directed as Continue to be used as So I need this Supreme Court is a judiciary and directed to give a fair argument which head of it is the The president who is under immunity So the president and From the look at one this took out a judgment. That was what he gave me again the president but So So It will be against rule of law It will be content that the president Under So the I to wait because of the job not to fall out from the moment And the hair from the president all right Mr. Shalala made what do you expect them to be the the the impact of this CBN or the Supreme Court's a ruling or judgment on this matters Given in favor of the governors who approached it With this Allowance or approval for the Naira old narrow to be used side-by-side with a new narrow notes till 31st December 2023 do you expect to see The cash crunch the narrow scarcity and the unfolding economic hardship around the country that we witnessed you expect to see it Reduce and things get back to normal with this. This is called Court judgment and the subsequent Directly by the central bank of Nigeria Yes But And You Okay, so do you expect, because some are saying that the Supreme Court never addressed the issue of the amount of the currency in circulation, you know, and therefore, yes, the old and new narrowness relief side-by-side, but and it could be accepted as legal tender around the country, but since a lot of people have taken their old notes back to the bank and don't have any notes at all, if the central bank decides they don't want to increase the amount of money in circulation, there will still be scarcity. So do you expect, in that regard, now do you expect anything, things to change significantly? Yes, that's where I say, if there is a full employer with that Supreme Court, you know, before, the money in circulation, yes, it's coming by the CBN and then the commercial bank, you know, the money that is your account, is your money, you have the right to it. No one can deny you access to your money. Yes, I agree that if the CBN causes a big prostration, the availability of money, no, there is not enough cash in the system, but that will still be against the judgment of the court. The reason for that judgment of the court is that the policy is a violation of the fundamental rights of citizens to their funds. The funds in the bank account, in everybody's bank account is your property. Nobody can deny you how you're going to use that money. So if the CBN, the first time it's complied to me, with that judgment, the Supreme Court, and make the money available in the system, in the system, so if guys, they do not comply, then I'll see the problem. But I know that, like you said, from now, without stress, it will be, it will not go to normal, it will not go to normal as it was before the policy, because they would have to comply, because there are some benefits of this policy. There are benefits, there are some benefits. So they would have to increase the money in that position, and then it would gradually be. Well, I'd also like to ask what you think would play out following these directives from the CBN, more like endorsing the ruling of the Supreme Court. Do you think that all of this would solve the cash crunch that Nigerians have been faced with for the, you know, the past months? Yeah, I'd say it depends on the CBN employer, by releasing enough cash into the system. They don't forget the policy as they are not required. The problem with the policy is that the limit is going to go every week. The limit of cash that is needed for cash is going to go every week. There are specific to do transfer for all the transactions. So everything depends on the CBN to release enough cash into the system. Without even enough cash into the system, that would simply be a problem. All right. What's your take on the constitutionality of certain governors in Nigeria before the CBN press release yesterday, making statements, you know, telling their residents that the old Naira notes remain legal tender in their states. Do you think there's some sort of treason somewhere here, you know, trying to usurp the power of the president? Because we're aware that no matter what the presidency in court says, we know that after the Supreme Court's initial, sorry, the court's initial order, the first one, that the president on... The interim... Yes, the interim year injunction, yes, the interim order. That the president, in defiance to this interim order on February 16th, gave a national address, a national broadcast, where he insisted that only the old 209 notes will be accepted as legal tender whilst the 501,000 Naira will be phased out, you know. So the president had already said this. But the governors had gone ahead, started to air a fire. Most recently Babaji Nesamol of Lagos State yesterday to say the legal tender, the old Naira remain legal tender, and anyone who Banco rejects them will be shot down. So do you think there's some sort of... Someone said maybe there's some sort of treason here. Some governor is trying to usurp the power of the president. What do you say to this? Let's see. The Supreme Court, the air fire and Babaji Nesamol, their statement was made possible to sprinkle judgment and order. You know, the interim order that was made. The one that had the interim order. That means everything in status quo remains. Because all the deadlines for the old notes were suspended and that it remains in the tender. So the statement was made possible to those orders that were made by the Supreme Court. And they were justified in making that order. And don't forget that even the statement of the president that was falsely to the interim order, because he called this a finding on that one. And so it was dictatorship for the president to falsely to the order. I don't say this. I don't think you are trying to say that. You are justifying and making that statement. All right. So generally, what would you say this would mean on our economy? What would be the implication for the Nigerian economy? For the policy. The Nigerian policy. Exactly. Yeah. The policy has some benefits. But I think the problem is the position of the policy. Because it will reduce cost in the system. And you do a lot of things. It will increase the bank revenue. It will increase the federal government revenue. It will reduce insecurity. It will reduce corruption. But I think the timing for the election, and as well as the fact that even this limit that was given to each individual was not available. So it affects the other sector, the common sector of the economy, who will learn how to cast a section. So the money was not available today. So it depends on that policy as affected the economy, plasticity and plasticity. So for me, I believe that if the policy is where it mentions, and then the cast, no matter how you do as I said, it's available. It will be very good for the economy. But let it make the cast appeal. All right. Mr. Shalala Mead, legal practitioner. Thank you so much for your time. You're welcome, man. Thank you. That's the size of that conversation. We have more discussions ahead. Of course, when we come back from our break, we'll be looking again at the, by model voter accreditation system machines and their reconfiguration of mixed reactions still trailing that. We'll be right back.