Femi Falana, a human rights lawyer, has taken the Central Bank of Nigeria to court to dispute what he calls the ”illegal” floating of the Naira.
Remember that on June 14, when the Naira was trading 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.
The CBN website shows an exchange rate of between N744 and N746 as of Friday.
On Channels TV today, August 18, Falana stated that the CBN Act required 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’ve 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-à-vis other currency,” he said.
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According to Section 20(1) of the CBN Act, the only legal money in Nigeria is the currency notes issued by the Central Bank: “only the naira.”
Section 20 (5) of the Act also states that anyone who spends any other currency in Nigeria without the central bank’s approval commits an offence “and shall be prosecuted,” he added, adding, “The penalty is six months’ imprisonment.”
Falana went on to say that as long as government officials are unwilling to strengthen the naira and make it the sole legal tender in Nigeria, “we’re not going to go far.”
The Nigerian Senior Advocate also commented on the Federal Government’s allocation of N5 billion for each state and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). While the National Economic Council (NEC) claimed that this allowed them to purchase food for distribution to the underprivileged in their individual states, Falana said that the actions 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 the dollarisation of the economy,” he said.