Naira redesign: NSA makes case for troops fighting terrorists in Northern Nigeria

The National Security Adviser (NSA) Maj.-Gen. Mohammed Monguno (retd), on Thursday, expressed the fear that the naira redesign and cashless policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) might affect the operations of troops in the field if not properly addressed.

Monguno stated this when he appeared before the House of Representatives Ad hoc Committee on the currency redesign and cashless policy in Abuja.

The NSA, who was represented at the meeting by the Head of the Defence Unit, Rear Admiral Abubakar Mustapha, said such policies would affect the operations of troops if not well implemented even in developed countries.

He said: “Because of the sensitivity of some of this information that will come and bordering on security, there are things we cannot say in the media.

“Globally, military operations, even in first world countries, such policies, if not well properly thought out, will affect some certain operations.

“Some of our soldiers are deployed in places where they cannot actually access digital means of paying for their daily subsistence; that is the main issue that NSA has been talking about.

“It is important that this committee sits down and articulates better ways of actually addressing these issues.”

Earlier, the Chairman of the committee, Ado Doguwa, said the committee was interested in the implications of the policy on national security.

He said that the committee would interface with major stakeholders to determine the effect of the policy on the economy.

Doguwa stressed that the committee had so far gathered that the policy posed a challenge to agriculture, economy and security.

READ ALSO: NSA Monguno warns politicians against violence in 2023 elections

“It is unpopular among the people, it has caused hardship and it may affect the forthcoming elections,” the chairman stated.

He adjourned the meeting till Friday for the committee to meet with the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu, and the leadership of the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company (NSPMC).

Nigerians are still waiting anxiously if the Federal Government will comply with the Supreme Court’s ruling on the deadline for the naira swap.

This followed the government’s call to the apex court to dismiss the application filed by the three All Progressives Congress (APC) governors on the redesign of the naira notes.

A seven-member panel of the Supreme Court had earlier on Wednesday temporarily stopped the federal government, CBN, and the 27 banks in the country from ending the use of the old N200, N500, and N1,000 as a legal tender pending the determination of the suit on February 15.

However, in a preliminary objection filed by his lawyers, Mahmud Magaji and Tijanni Gazali, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, argued that the Supreme Court lacks the jurisdiction to adjudicate the matter.

He stressed that Governors Nasir El-Rufai (Kaduna), Yahaya Bello (Kogi), and Bello Matawalle (Zamfara) have not shown a reasonable cause of action against the federal government and other defendants on the matter.

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