Godwin Emefiele And The Case Of Tortoise And His King-in-Law By Osigwe Omo-Ikirodah

Godwin Emefiele And The Case Of Tortoise And His King-in-Law By Osigwe Omo-Ikirodah

The videos are everywhere, the news is everywhere, Nigerians are suffering, Nigerians are weeping, the burden is awful.

For the first time, I see people beating up a soldier and proudly video recording the event; we’ve seen videos of grown men fighting in banks and stripping naked all because they can’t access their own money.

Let me quickly recount this tale of the tortoise and his in-law before I continue, so the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) can learn some lessons.

The Tortoise was the King’s son-in-law, and one day he stole a tuber of yam and was ordered by the King to serve the mandatory punishment of being tied to a tree in the market square for 12 hours so that every villager was aware of his crime.

Following that, the Tortoise was displayed in the market square, with people praising the King for taking the stance of no sacred cow despite being his son in law.

Now, 12 hours later, the King sent the guards to free Tortoise, and he refused, stating he should be left for another 12 hours to prove how sorry he was for his shameful act. The King was impressed.

However, when the people saw Tortoise after 12 hours still tied to the tree, they were outraged and stated that if the King could be so cruel to do this to his own son-in-law, then they too would suffer greatly if they made the same mistake. At this point, the King lost their sympathy.

This is something the CBN Governor should be cognizant of; according to him, the redesign of the Naira would reduce banditry, vote buying, and so on. Now the question is, at what cost, the blood of Nigerians?

This is why the public is upset with Emefiele, especially APC members for whom this policy has a significant impact on public perception.

The deliberate hoarding of new Naira notes and the insistence on the deadline for the collection of old Naira notes serve two purposes.

If it is against vote buying, it is probable because all political parties have been accused of vote buying in the past, therefore it is analogous to the same snake biting one and flogging others with the same tail.

This reduces the permutation to only one logic: agitate people against the ruling party so that its candidates risk losing elections.

For example, in Benin City, when political parties, particularly the APC, should be out campaigning, they are instead hiding because the people mistakenly blame them for their plight.

So, in that case, the CBN governor may have succeeded, but, as in the case of the Tortoise and his father-in-law, the king, the CBN governor and those behind such policies that have caused excruciating pains on the people because they have refused to allow the distribution of new Naira notes may have failed.

Worse, the electronic platform’s traffic is far exceeding its capacity, making funds transfers impossible. Emiefele should be cautious and take the necessary precautions because a single strike by civil society or the masses against any CBN branch may cause a ripple effect, similar to how in the case of Tortoise and his in-law, the people revolted against the king because they were sympathetic to Tortoise.

Because common sense says that CBN Governor Emiefele should have been aware of the negative perception he is giving his political party, for which people are incorrectly blaming them at this point.

But ‘You can fool some people some times but you cant fool all the people all the time‘

Osigwe Omo-Ikirodah is the Chairman and CEO of Bush Radio Academy.