Nigeria Has Become A Banana Republic Where Court Orders Are disobeyed With Impunity – Falana

 Nigeria Has Become  A Banana Republic Where Court Orders Are disobeyed With Impunity – Falana Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, has la...

 Nigeria Has Become  A Banana Republic Where Court Orders Are disobeyed With Impunity – Falana

Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, has lambasted the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for disobeying the interim injunction issued by the Supreme Court suspending the implementation of the February 10 deadline in which the old Naira notes ceased to be legal tender in the country.

The apex bank had fixed February 10 this year as the deadline for Nigerians to swap their old version of the redesigned N200, N500 and N1,000 notes but the Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara state governments dragged the Nigerian government to the Supreme Court over the Naira redesign policy.

In a motion ex-parte filed on their behalf by their lawyer, AbdulHakeem Uthman Mustapha (SAN), the three Northern States urged the apex court to grant them an interim injunction stopping the Federal Government, either by itself or acting through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the commercial banks or its agents from carrying out its plan of ending the timeframe of the naira swap.

In its ruling, the Supreme Court on Wednesday February 8, 2023 ordered a suspension of the deadline of February 10 for the swapping of the old to new Naira notes by the CBN and adjourned the case to Wednesday, February 15, 2023 for final decision.

But the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele insisted that the February 10 deadline stands and there is no going back on it.

Reacting to the CBN decision to disobey the Supreme Court interim Injunction, Falana during a live interview on Channels TV’s ‘The 2023 Verdict’ on Tuesday, said the Nigerian government was not ready to comply with the apex court order.

The Senior Advocate said that it is only in a banana republic that the CBN can boldly disobey an order issued by the Supreme, not in a country where rule of law exists.

He said, “In a country where the rule of law operates, once the Supreme Court has determined a matter or given an order, it is expected that all and sundry – everybody – will comply with the order.

“[A] statement was credited to the Central Bank that since it was not a party to the case, it’s not going to comply with the order. I thought that could only happen in a banana republic.

“I expected the Central Bank to have issued a statement following the order of the Supreme Court: ‘all actions are stale until the 15th of February.'”

Falana noted that the law will be invoked to deal with those who are deliberately flouting the orders of the court and sabotaging the rule of law in Nigeria, saying that, “For me, an example has to be made this time around, so that nobody will feel that he’s above the law in our country.”

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