By Sylvester Udemezue (udems)

Thank you, Mr President.
Let’s hope that Mr President Buhari will resolve the problem of insufficiency of the new naira notes within the 7 days. It’s interesting to note that the 7-day promise will terminate on 10 February 2023, which happens to be the deadline for use of Old Naira Notes.

I am very hopeful Mr President will achieve this, so that he proceeds with these beautiful policies which would have multiple long-term advantages/benefits for ordinary Nigerians.

However, where Mr President Buhari is not able to achieve his plan to resolve naira insufficiency (I want him to succeed; these policies are very laudable), the following option would lie essentially before the government, namely: the Government may consider extending the deadline again from 10 February 2023 to a later date, perhaps shortly before the 2023 general elections (say 20 February 2023) and to allow the old Naira notes and the new Naira notes to continue to co-exist as legal tender till that date.

Note the following, which remain my position:

A). Naira Redesignation and Daily Cash Withdrawal Limit policies of Mr President Buhari are laudable and should be supported by all Nigerians considering the huge benefits derivable therefrom. (I have already said enough on the huge benefits some of which have even begun manifesting themselves)..

B). Every laudable policy of Government comes with some level of adverse side effects. What comes easy won’t last, what lasts won’t come easy. Alisha Tyler said “Nothing really worth having is easy to get. The hard-fought battles, the goals won with sacrifice, are the ones that matter”
And Shauna Niequist wrote, “Nothing good comes easily. You have to lose things you thought you loved, give up things you thought you needed. You have to get over yourself, beyond your past, out from under the weight of your future. The good stuff never comes when things are easy”. If Nigerians want a better Nigeria, we must be prepared to make some minimal reasonable sacrifice in order to realize it. If we want everything easy, we may never get to the promised land.

C). There are against smooth operation of the Naira Redesignation and Daily Cash Withdrawal Limit policies, obvious sabotage and backbiting activities, motivated by mischief, selfishness and hypocrisy on the part of people who want the policies to fail in order that they may have their way to buy votes and thwart the free will of the people in the forthcoming 2023 elections.

D). Accordingly, much of the opposition to these policies, especially by some elites, are motivated by selfishness and not by any genuine concern for the plight of ordinary Nigerians because virtually all the elites opposing the polices have never been known to be on the side of the ordinary suffering Nigerians;

E). Distinction must however be drawn between opposition by some genuinely concerned Nigerians who bear the brunt of the harsh side effects, and convenient opportunistic opposition by some selfish elites who have ulterior motives not unconnected to vote buying, and rigging during the upcoming elections.

Notwithstanding these, innocent Nigerian citizens do not deserve to suffer any further *unbearable* hardships on account of polices and efforts (however genuine the polices and efforts) to enthrone free and fair elections in Nigeria or to stop crimes and corruption. Although nothing good ever comes easy, meaning there can be no genuinely good and impactful policies without some level of side effects, yet while introducing such polices, the Government has an added responsibility to put measures in place to ensure that the adverse side effects do not become unbearable for the citizens or otherwise to cushion the adverse effects of such polices. To this end, the Government should have known that (just as it’s with the introduction of everything good) there would be acts of sabotage along the line, and therefore must have planned ahead on how to effectively deal with sabotage in order to ensure that such doesn’t truncate enthronement of beautiful polices and programs such as the Naira Redesignation and Daily Cash Withdrawal Limit policies. Innocent Nigerians need first to be alive and safe in order to participate in and enjoy the fruits of free and fair elections and a crime-free Nigeria . After all, those who would vote in these coming elections, judging from past experiences, may not be up to 40 million people. In 2019, not up to 30 million Nigerians voted. Nigeria has over 220 million people and the safety of the other over 180 million Nigerians who may/will not vote should not and must not be sacrificed because we want to secure free and fair elections for the about 30 to 40 million persons expected to participate in voting or being voted for..

God help Nigeria!
Amen!
Respectfully,
Sylvester Udemezue (Udems).
Presiding Pastor of
The Realist Ministry (TRM) Nigeria.
08109024556.
mrudems@yahoo.com
(4 February 2023)