On October 26, the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele announced the decision of the bank to release a new naira note to the populace. The CBN Governor explained in clear terms the reasons for its decision, and I believe that anyone who follows closely would agree with me that this decision has yielded success (at least partly).

As expected, the new notes were unveiled by President Buhari yesterday and as I have come to expect in the recent period, it was met with widespread backlash by the populace, particularly the youths and social media self-acclaimed analysts.

While I have not always been in support of the decisions of the Emefiele-led CBN and its policies (in fact, I am a staunch critic of most of its policies), I believe this decision is a masterclass. Analysts and agitators need to understand the following:

1. It is obvious that the major aim of the CBN for redesigning the notes is to mop up a large amount of money in circulation and thereby curb inflation to some extent. The CBN utilized the fact that the naira is due for redesign to carry out this strategy. If we are being honest, we all saw on different media how cash that has been stored and kept for years started resurfacing. if this is not a masterclass, I don’t know what is.
2. The currency is a mere paper, what gives it value is its recognition as a legal tender. It is not a logo or brand of a company that needs to be attractive or beautiful. The aim is to stabilize our currency and economy and not beautify the naira. I am very sure that if an entirely new design was unveiled, people would still complain about the essence of its beauty when the naira is almost worthless.
3. The CBN, yesterday, also announced that it will reduce the printing of 1000 notes and print more 200 and 500 notes. Although this will be unwelcome to many people (policies can’t be perfect), I believe it will go some way in arresting our naira free-fall and reducing the cash in circulation.
4. As a major plus to the policy, the naira grew stronger against the dollar in the past weeks. While this growth cannot be entirely attributed to the CBN’s directive, it is noteworthy that it came at the right time.
5. Let me reiterate, I am not a staunch supporter of Emefiele’s administration, I think we Nigerians need to take a chill pill and give kudos when due. We need to stop the unnecessary insults and abuse and see things for what they are.
6. Policies can’t be perfect; in fact, they won’t be accepted generally. However, a policy is deemed good when it meets the aim for which it was designed.

I gave olosho this money this morning. She no collect am .

Am in soup.