PUNCH
Since the arrest of another Nigerian socialite, Pascal Okechukwu (aka Cubana Chef Priest), I have come across jejune assertions justifying the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s pursuit of those spraying naira at parties. While reading comments made by a random commenter on social media but unsupported with sensible evidence is one thing, it is another entirely when the illogic becomes the subject of a newspaper editorial. We must be careful not to contort logic because we want to justify the abuse of power by an organisation like the EFCC that hardly boasts a significant record of conviction against perpetrators of massive heists but wants to convince us that naira spraying is where the problem lies. If the EFCC’s move against those charged to court for abusing the naira is truly about the naira and not a mere pursuit of vendetta against select individuals, the CBN Act 2007 would have long netted traditional rulers, politicians, popular juju/fuji musicians, and even Afrobeat artistes. We all know the reason the EFCC will not dare.
The campaign against naira abuse has subsisted for decades but selecting individuals for prosecution based on what they do at parties/events is a new development. Maybe, the madcap is due to the EFCC’s new sheriff or a newfangled zeal to remain relevant since the prosecution of actual thieves is impossible for them. Naira spraying, a practice associated with faaji-loving Yorubas, has existed for decades and is now appropriated by other ethnic groups in the country.
Money spraying has given rise to a mini-industry of buying and selling crisp and clean notes at party sites, an enterprise that must irk a joyless organisation like the EFCC. It is interesting that party sites are about the only place you are guaranteed to ever see crisp notes in Nigeria. I have been to several countries but Nigeria is about the only place where the dirtiest and the most diseased currency notes circulate. Even banks unembarrassedly hand you piles of dirty and shrunk notes that should have been shredded five years ago! Unless you are connected to someone high up who can help you procure clean crisp notes, it is virtually impossible to get them in Nigeria. It is at those party sites that ordinary folks get to sight and buy them to spray; such is the nature of our cultural attitude to ostentatious displays of joy. Unfortunately, it is also that very joy that the EFCC has sneakily come to steal, to kill and to destroy with their sudden clampdown.
First, a major reason the naira notes get so easily mutilated is that our economy is heavily cash-dependent. The practices that Section 21 of the Central Bank of the Nigeria Act of 2007 identifies as naira abuse—and for which punishments are prescribed—only marginally contribute to the problem of the shortened life of the notes. The Act stipulates activities such as spraying at events and dancing or stumping on naira notes; writing, stapling, and tearing banknotes; defacing, selling, and mutilating, as examples of naira abuse but all of the above barely culminate in the diseased condition of the notes in circulations. Money is too scarce in Nigeria for anyone to mutilate it like that. What is far more responsible for the limited life of naira notes is their heavy usage. How?
Nigeria has a high percentage of what they call the “unbanked population.” That is, a section of people who do not have an account with a financial institution nor are connected to the grid of mobile monetary payment systems anywhere. Consequently, we transact in cash a lot, which puts a heavy strain on our naira notes. In 2022, a report put Nigeria as one of the seven countries that comprise half the world’s unbanked population. That is a lot of people who do not use the electronic systems of banking that have reduced the demand for physical notes in other countries. The factors that have helped advanced economies to achieve cashlessness—that is, ready availability and reliability of digital payment systems and infrastructure—are still largely missing in Nigeria. Without knowing Nigeria’s population, we can only guess that those who use cash in daily transactions run into millions.
