Buharinomics: What the Street is Saying

Rarely do leaders and elites care to hear out the street in Nigeria because here leaders don't serve, they rule. Muhammadu Buhari, current Nigeria's president is very typical in his arrogant disregard for the people he claims to serve. Even when late President Umaru Musa Yar'adua said he would be a servant leader, hardly had he secured himself in power than he began to rule according to himself and a little clique around him that it became a difficult thing to have his deputy, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan to succeed him when he died.

I had a rare privilege recently to hear out the street on the cashless policy of Buhari. A sneaking on some discussions here and there, a hearing of curses pronounced on the president and the Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele by some frustrated market women, a feeling of dejection by young men who cannot find money to buy food to feed their families, a sarcastic twisting of the name of Godwin Emefiele, the CBN governor, the groaning of a parent who could not find money to pay for fees connected with the West African Examination Council exam for her daughter with the daughter having to stay away from school for two weeks in Oyo state that runs what it calls a free education.

It was Sunday, 12 March and my wife and I had gone to popular Molete in Ibadan capital of Oyo state to see if we could buy some new naira notes from a woman shopkeeper who had developed a .friendship with my wife. The husband runs a fairly large supermarket and from their sales, this woman helps my wife with rates that should be the lowest in Ibadan. She collects N500 for every N5,000. She doesn't do it for everybody except for my wife and some close neighbors. This time as my wife got to her to buy N10,000.00 the woman noticed a frown on my wife's face and said, "this woman comes here to buy phone recharge credit for between N5,000 and N8,000 but today she's not smiling, I want to put a smile on her face." How did she put a smile on my wife's face? She sold the N10,000.00 she needed for only N500 which normally should go for N1,000.00.

As my wife went into the supermarket to transact her business, I sat outside on a bench where Mr. Okoro who sold locally fabricated boxer pants sat facing the ever-cacophonous roundabout with vehicles honking at great and deafening decibels as they struggle for the road that has been taken over by street traders that the government refuses to keep in order. Mr. Okoro suddenly beckoned to me and said in obvious frustration. "Oga, Nigeria has finally fallen, the economy has fallen, and nothing is selling again. I have been here since morning (it was about 7 pm then) and I have only sold one pair of boxer pants. People are not coming to buy because there is no money. You see, I have a family of eight, me, my wife, and our six children. I don't know how to feed them. Here is my ATM card, I have money in the bank, but I can't make a withdrawal because of the cashless policy of Buhari."

‘‘So, nobody is buying,’’ I am enthused really having nothing to say but desiring to hear more from him. ‘‘But I hear that the Supreme Court has judged that the old notes should become legal tender again until December 2023. Why are you sellers not receiving the old notes?’’ ‘‘The banks are saying, he replied, that those they give the old notes will not have the opportunity of returning it to the banks, so nobody will accept that from anybody.’’ ‘‘What about the Supreme Court judgment?’’ I asked again. "But Buhari has not spoken." ‘‘Why do you think he has not spoken to the nation?’’ I asked. '‘The man has an agenda that I don't know.’ Mr. Okoro suggested that the president has not spoken because the old naira notes have been destroyed and the new ones are not enough to go around.

I reminded Mr. Okoro that Nasir El Rufai, Kaduna state governor said that when Godwin Emefiele said at their meeting with the president that the CBN had destroyed the old naira notes, some governors told him that from their sources in the CBN, they know that the old notes had not been destroyed. As we spoke, my wife came rushing urging me to go thank the shopkeeper who had sold N10,000.00 to her for N500 a very generous offer. Mr. Okoro brought out his ATM card and said, "it is the same woman, (the shopkeeper) who has bailed me out by selling some money to me too which will enable me to feed my family for some time again.’’ I rushed to give the woman the "rankadede" the Hausa greeting but most humbly she won't take it. She lifted up my right hand that I was lowering holding up my clenched fist.

Mr. Okoro was not the only one in his grief, others on the street also wore sad faces. On Olunloyo street in Ibadan as this writer went on an evening stroll, two obviously frustrated women sat in their shops saying unprintable things about the president. Their grief was that the cashless policy had brought their sales down and they were hungry because they were not selling. At the same spot, as I returned from the stroll about one hour later, two other women who walked the same Olunloyo street were pronouncing curses on the promoters of the cashless policy, curses that are unprintable.

On another day, my cousin sauntered into his room which served both as a living room and bedroom for him and his wife. His other six children had another room where they sleep. He is a factory worker and became so when his electronics repair work collapsed because of poor electricity supply. He has been walking the street since morning looking for where he could buy some new naira notes. He was ready to buy N1,000 for N300 which is the popular rate but could find no place to buy it. His wife who sold goats could not help either. People who came to buy goats bought with what is now called "transfer" which is electronic payment. The money is locked up in the banks with no hope to withdraw them. Another young artisan who came in with his bag strapped to his back removed it tiredly and began a sarcastic wordplay on the name of Emefiele. That name is "Egefiele". By "ege" he was saying the man had been dribbling Nigerians. According to this young man, "Egefiele" tricked us to put our money in banks and locked them up there giving us no access to them again.

Another teenage girl had not attended school for two weeks because she owed fees for WAEC in her state which is supposed to be running free education program. The examinations will soon begin. A good Samaritan had gone to pay a heavy interest rate for N2,000 to give the family with the hope that they will be able to find N500 to make the N2,500 that is required. Her hopes may be dashed if the parents are not able to find that money. Her father is a motorcycle repairer. They find it difficult to feed their four children for the same reason that Buhari's cashless policy has grounded the economy. An Alhaja, a grassroots politician opened her deep freezer which she uses to stock soft drinks which she sells. It was empty because she has found no money to replenish her stock. The security men who watch the street she lives in had come to demand payment for the month. She couldn't pay because she had no cash, and the security men will not accept the electronic transfer. Her house may be excluded from the watch in a street notorious known for hoodlum activities.

The economy is comatose because of the ill-conceived cash swap policy. The Economic Advisor to the president, Dr. Doyin Salami warned both Buhari and Emefiele that the amount of N400 billion earmarked to be printed will not do the work of the N2. 1 trillion they want to mop up. The Economic Council warned the president that the timing of the policy is inauspicious, but the usually self-opinionated president will not yield. Now the economy is down, the street is angry and frustrated. Buhari went to Qatar to tell the international community that there will be no repeat of the June 12 experience, that is, he will not annul the recently held presidential election as Nigeria's one-time maximum dictator, Ibrahim Babangida did. But the street does not believe him. If he is honest, why has he not spoken to the nation since the Supreme Court judgement? The street does not know the Supreme Court because they did not vote for the judges, but they voted for Buhari.

If Buhari will speak to the nation for just two minutes affirming his obedience to the Supreme Court judgment, the street believes the market women and men will accept the old naira notes once again and the economy will bounce back again. For Mr. Okoro, Buhari has a hidden agenda. This agenda may be to frustrate this transition from his government to another one. Tension is building up in the street as another former president, Olusegun Obasanjo said recently, and may be up in flames if Buhari does not speak to douse the tension.

Tunde Akande is both a journalist and a pastor. He earned a Master's degree in Mass Communication from the University of Lagos