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Today, February, 10, 2023 will go down in in Nigerian history as the day of banking confusion nationwide as everybody including Tom, Dick and Harry will attempt to bring to fore, his or her own interpretation of the recent Supreme Court injunction obtained by some northern governors.
Banking trouble is said to have started in the country when the apex bank of the land, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) directed and announced that effective February, 10, 2023, old Naira notes of 200, 500 and 1,000 will seize to function as legal tender in Nigeria in line with the currency swap it suddenly confused ONLY the presidency to introduce.
However as the days draw nearer and it looks as if the new notes are yet to saturate the economy, a set of three Governors, approached the Supreme Court and secured an interim injunction, hanging the terminal date of the currency swap after all.
Otherwise, recall that the Supreme Court had on Wednesday, last wek, ruled that the deadline should be suspended pending the determination of the case brought before it by the governors of Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara States.

The court has fixed February 15 to entertain the case. However, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, in a response to the suit later on Wednesday, among other things, said the Supreme Court lacked jurisdiction on the matter.
However, on Thursday, a day before the deadline, commercial banks in the country and bank customers were thrown into confusion as to whether the old N1000, N500 and N200 would cease to be legal tender by Friday (today) or will retain the status pending when Supreme Court will look into the suit brought before it by the governors.
Several top bank executives, who spoke to our correspondent on the issue were divided saying they could not tell whether the Friday deadline would be enforced or not as the CBN is yet to authenticate its earlier directive or send a counter.
Meanwhile, several lawyers were sharply divided as whereas some say the Supreme Court lacks jurisdiction on the CBN directive as the bank is not a state that is in dispute with the Federal Government so as to necessitate a jurisdiction for the apex court.
Already, fact check across the country showed that some banks are gradually withdrawing their services while others are on skeletal services as a way of checking attacks by aggrieved customers who are becoming increasingly cash-strapped following the lingering of lack of new notes nationwide.
Besides, many of the banks that are willing to give services are only giving out rationed withdrawals on not more than N2,000 and N5,000 or N10,000 in rare cases while PoS have turned Bureau d’Change on naira to the extent of changing about N5000 old notes with a charge of N1,000 to willing buyers in many parts of the country.

However, according to a leading human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SNA), Mr. Femi Falana, said any negative move by the CBN would be nothing but a contemptuous disregard for the rule of law.
Falana took a look at the technicalities of the case establishing the reason why the Management of the Central Bank might be looking to ignore the court order; the legal luminary however, gave his counter reasons why the CBN cannot disregard the Supreme Court, citing cases that give greater context to the matter on ground.
Below is a full statement by Mr Falana regarding “Why CBN Must Obey Ex Parte Order Of Supreme Court:”
“We have just read a report that the Authorities of the Central Bank of Nigeria have decided not to comply with the ex parte order issued by the Supreme Court of Nigeria in respect of the avoidable currency swap crisis.

“The reason adduced for the contemptuous disregard for the rule of law is that the Central Bank of Nigeria is not a party to the case of Attorney-General of Kaduna State & 2 Ors. v. Attorney-General of the Federation (Suit No: SC/CV/162/2023) pending at the Supreme Court.
“It is pertinent to remind the Management of the Central Bank of the case of Nkwo Augustine Eddiego v. Board of Central Bank of Nigeria (Suit No: HCIK/38/2022), where the Delta State High Court granted an ex parte order which restrained the Defendants from preventing the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria from seeking political offices pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice in the case. Even though Mr. Emefiele was not a party to the suit he took advantage of the ex parte order to join the APC to contest the presidential primary of the APC before he was stopped by President Buhari.