I was gobsmacked after reading the doleful report about the fake one thousand (N1,000) new naira notes given to a Point of Sale (PoS) businessman days ago. This unsavoury incident happened four days after the new naira notes were launched by the incumbent president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Mohammadu Buhari.
Also, it is reported that an avalanche of innocent masses have fallen victim to these unscrupulous, illicit, and callous people who are featured with proverbial red eyes, not conscious or forgetting that the potency of repercussion is quenchless like that of hellfire.
I believe those evil perpetrators will never evade the irate hand of lugubrious consequences. In his shrewd apothegm, Victor Webster states that “everything we do, even the slightest we do, can have a ripple effect and repercussions that emanate. If you throw a pebble into the water on one side of the ocean, it can create a tidal wave on other side”.
Nonetheless, if this action is viewed on the contrary side, abject penury might be the cogent reason that propelled those people to engage in such a dastardly act. Albeit, it is ungodly, hurtful, immoral, and penalizable under the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria as amended.
Last month, during the launching of the new naira notes (N200, N500, N1000) at the Council Chambers of the Presidential Villa, Abuja, the governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele reportedly unveiled that the reasons behind the change of naira notes is mainly to allay corrupt practices and eschew counterfeited naira notes but in my perspective, their acclaimed strenuous effort has been rendered effortless.
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In the space of four days, the new notes were launched, Nigerians proved their misdemeanor and corrupt act by reproducing fake ones. Although, yesterday or thereabouts, the Central Bank of Nigeria has made the description and features of the new naira notes reached the general public but how many people will still know the differences? Solving problem, to create another.
It is the high time the federal government took swifter action by nabbing and bringing those evil perpetrators spending counterfeited naira notes to the infamous book of history before it goes haywire or become routine action. The earlier, the better.
Inaolaji, a social commentator, writes from Ogbomoso, Oyo State
