I was shocked after reading the report about the fake 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 President Muhammadu Buhari.
It was that many innocent Nigerians 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 escape the 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. However, it is ungodly, hurtful, immoral, and punishable under the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria as amended.
Last month, during the launch 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 said that the reasons behind the change of naira notes is mainly to stem corrupt practices and eliminate counterfeited naira notes. Unfortunately, the counterfeiting of the new naira notes has made nonsense of this effort.
In the space of four days, the new notes were launched, some unscrupulous Nigerians proved their corrupt act by reproducing fake ones. Although, the Central Bank of Nigeria has unveiled the features of the new naira notes to the general public, but how many people will still know the differences? Solving problem, to create another.
It is high time the federal government took swifter action by arresting and prosecuting those evil perpetrators spending counterfeited naira notes before it goes haywire or becomes routine action. The earlier, the better.
Olayode Inaolaji,
Ogbomoso, Oyo state
