The National Association of Nigerian Students, South-West Zone, has bemoaned the continuous depreciation of the naira to the United States dollar.
In a statement, Friday, signed by the zone’s Coordinator, Adegboye Olatunji, and the Chairmen of the Joint Campus Committees of Ogun, Lagos, Ondo and Oyo states; Kehinde Damilola, Olusesi Tolulope, Omotosho Surprise and Adeleke Quadri respectively, the student body noted that it had become necessary to address the “ineffectiveness and inefficiency of those appointed by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), to be in charge of the economy of the nation.”
The statement read partly, “It is rather unfortunate that the basis of the society which is the economy, in itself, has been destroyed such that it is now impossible for Nigerians to live by legal means since their earnings can no longer fetch them anything.
“The value of the naira in exchange at the international market has now become so worthless. No thanks to the incompetency of the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, and the failure of his counterpart serving as the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed.
“As the naira now exchanges for one dollar at N710, it is expected that this duo should resign from office with shame and bid public office goodbye forever. The effect of their incompetence on the lives of Nigerians is that the little stipend paid as minimum wage is no longer sustainable.”
They maintained that at this critical time, it was expected that the Ministry of Finance and the CBN would take serious, the adequate enforcement of the Act that reserved the naira as the only means of exchange within the Nigerian territory.
“Dollar cannot continue to fly around in our domestic market and transacted by black market operators while we anticipate any growth to the value of the naira. We know that the enforcement of this Act will make it difficult for Emefiele, Ahmed, and their fellow politicians to launder money and do votes purchase as was evident in the primary elections of the All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party.
“We do not need to emphasise that the value of our naira will continue to fall as long as Nigeria remains an importing nation with no export products. More than ever before, this is the time for the Nigerian economy to be redirected as a pro-people economy where the priority in governmental decisions would be the workers and masses of the country.
NANS said that reasonable, efficient and competent people must be put in charge of the economy of the country if the country must progress economically and have value for our national currency.
“This condition, the duo of Emefiele and Ahmed has failed to meet up. Hence, we unequivocally demand as the voice of the entire students in the south-western zone of the country that the CBN governor and Minister of Finance be sacked from office with immediate effect. It is obvious that they lack the knowledge and capacity needed to move forward the Nigerian economy.
“We are calling on the National Assembly to as a matter of urgency demand for the sack of these incompetent duo as we no longer have confidence that President Buhari would take any adequate action. Failure to do this, we shall mobilise all our forces for a protest on Monday, August 1, 2022, to make clearer our demand.”
The CBN has in recent times come under criticism for failing to stabilise the naira which has continued to dip against major currencies.
The ruling APC had in 2015 promised to stabilise the exchange rate which stood at about N200/$1 on the black market at the time.
However, the naira hit an all-time low of N710 to the dollar earlier in the week, attracting criticisms from the opposition. The naira has, however, remained stable at N420/$1 on the official market