The Supreme Court ruled that President Muhammadu Buhari disobeyed a court order regarding the redesign of the federal government’s currency notes.
On Friday, a seven-member court panel led by John Okoro unanimously ruled against a lawsuit filed by some state governors to challenge what they termed the federal government’s “demonetisation policy.”
The disobedience of court orders by the President in a constitutional democracy such as ours is an indication that the constitution has failed and that democratic governance has been replaced by autocracy or dictatorship, said Emmanuel Agim, a member of the Supreme Court panel, in the court’s lead judgement.
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The policy, which was implemented by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in October of last year, entails the issuance of newly redesigned N200, N500, and N1,000 bank notes and the withdrawal of their previous versions from circulation within a short time frame.
It had originally planned to end the legal tender status of the old notes on January 31 but had to move the date to February 10 when it became apparent that the CBN could not supply enough new notes into circulation.
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Mr. Buhari’s approved and directed policy has resulted in the scarcity of banknotes. This has resulted in chaos, disrupting economic activities and causing hardship for millions of Nigerians living in a cash-based economy.
On 3 February, three state governments — Kaduna, Kogi, and Zamfara — filed a lawsuit against the federal government in the Supreme Court to invalidate the policy.
The Supreme Court issued an interim order suspending the implementation of the policy on 8 February, two days before the 10 February deadline set by the CBN to end the use of the old N200, N500, and N1,000 notes.
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Supreme Court Judgement
The judge ruled that both the old and new versions of the currency should remain legal pending further proceedings in the case.
In violation of the court’s order, President Buhari reinstated the validity of the old N200 notes in a broadcast on 16 February and insisted that the old N500 and N1,000 banknotes had ceased to be legal tender.
“It is beyond dispute that the first defendant disobeyed the order. This disobedience is evidenced by the President’s national broadcast on 16 February 2023, which is reproduced on pages 27 to 31 of this document,” Mr. Agim argued.
He added, “In defiance of the order, he ordered that only the old N200 naira bills be recirculated.
“Interestingly, there is no evidence of even this directive’s implementation. I concur with the ninth plaintiff that the first defendant has no right to be heard by this court because it has refused to respect the authority of this court and the authority of the law, from which the authority of the President and the Government of Nigeria derives.
Mr. Agim stated that Mr. Buhari’s disobedience to the court order renders the democratic government a mirage.
“The rule of law, upon which our democratic government is based, becomes illusory if the President of the country or any other authority or person refuses to obey court orders,” the Supreme Court justice stated.
As expected in a democracy, the court invalidated the policy on Friday because it was issued by the President without consultation.
The court then extended the validity of the old naira notes until December 31 and ruled that they would remain legal tender until the new deadlines.
Mr. Buhari, a former military dictator with a poor reputation for human rights in the 1980s, ran for president in 2015 on the promise that he had become a reformed democrat.
Since assuming office in May 2015, however, Mr. Buhari has hardly lived up to his promise, as his administration has consistently picked and chosen which court orders to obey over the past seven and a half years.
Friday’s verdict marked the first time a judge had specifically ruled him disobedient to a court order.
