FILE PHOTO: A man counts U.S. dollar banknotes next to Lebanese pounds at a currency exchange shop in Beirut, Lebanon April 24, 2020. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir/File Photo
Nigerian human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), has sued the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), for allegedly floating the naira.
Falana, who disclosed this on Friday, when he was featured on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, said the decision of the CBN under President Bola Tinubu to float the naira is illegal.
He argued that the CBN Act made it compulsory for the apex bank to fix the exchange rate.
“There’s no provision for floating the naira. It’s illegal. You say “The value of the naira will be determined by market forces. That is not there in the law”.
“I have had to sue the Central Bank of Nigeria at the Federal High Court because Section 16 of the Central Bank Act has imposed a duty on the Central Bank to fix and determine the rate of the naira vis-a-vis other currency.
“Section 20(1) of the CBN Act provides that the only legal tender in Nigeria shall be the currency notes issued by the Central Bank: only the naira.
“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 offense and shall be prosecuted. The penalty is six months imprisonment”, he said.
The CBN had on June 14, 2023, directed Deposit Money Banks (DMBs), to freely float the naira against the dollar and other international currencies.
Falana alleged that Nigeria’s economy is in crisis because it has been ‘dollarised’.
He questioned the reason why domestic transactions such as rent, school fees, and others are being made in dollars, thereby putting pressure on the Naira.
“The major problem is the dollarisation of the economy. As long as the government is not prepared to strengthen the Naira, to make the Naira the only legal tender in Nigeria, we are going to go further.”
