Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN) on Friday said it is illegal for anyone to spend any other currency in Nigeria, except the Naira which is the official currency of the country.

Falana stated this while appearing as guest on Channels Television programme ‘Sunrise Daily’ which was monitored by QUESTTIMES.

While bemoaning the poor state of the naira to the dollar and other foreign currencies, Falana blamed the Federal Government and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for yielding to the directives of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) which keeps telling Nigeria to devalue her currency, to the point that it is now grossly undervalued.

He said “Nobody is authorized to spend dollars in Nigeria. That is the position of the law. But what is going on now? How can you pay school fees in dollars? The ordinary people are victims of the distortion of the economy. I was in Benin Republic last year with my lawyers. We had an annual retreat and we spent naira or cefa in Cotonou. We didn’t spend a cent or a dollar. The same thing is going on in Niger”.



“Why should we allow any transaction in Nigeria to be valued in dollars? I am saying under the law, the legal tender in Nigeria are the currency notes issued by the Central Bank and there is no amendment to that law. I am nit talking politics here, I am talking law. I have challenged the Central Bank on this”.

“This guys who are talking about globalization are controlling their own economy everyday. Yet, they tell you here, trade globalization, allow everything to come in. But China and USA are fighting everyday over what should come into our country and what should not be allowed”.

“But here, IMF and World Bank are praising the government. You are looking for the value of the currency. For 45 years, we have been told by these imperialist institutions that naira is overvalued. So, they have been devaluing the currency through dollarization. Now, Bank of America recently said the naira is now undervalued”.

“The guys in the Central Bank are still devaluing the currency, saying naira is looking for its value. When I was an undergraduate, the value is 60k to a dollar but today, it is about N1,000 to a dollar”.

https://thequesttimes.com/by-law-it-is-illegal-for-anyone-to-spend-dollar-in-nigeria-falana/

Ngwaanu, Gandollar come explain how cripsy wads of dollars bribes were found in you babanriga?

It changes nothing

All politician are guilty with this. Including Oga them given how Dollar was flying around because of the Cashless policy

I agree. In developed world. They don't accept dollar for transaction. How can foreign schools or organizations pay salaries in dollars?

It must be discovered by all means. Anybody found guilty should be prosecuted and charged.

You say....

Let our economy grow to be an export driven economy and see if the west will not find a way to ensure that the Naira appreciates because we will be earning more if we were exporting.

Look at China, the US has been trying to force them to increase the value of their exchange rate which they have refused because they make more money that way for export.

China would give an arm and a leg to have this kid of exchange rate that we have presently.

When the government are spending it, what do you expect from the citizens. Tell government not to be awarding contract on dollars again.

There was a time I do consume imported peak milk from Holland or so, I never knew the kind of harm I was doing to Nigeria.

I think the Government should ban the importation of some things we produce in Nigeria, things like milk, cereals etc

But DRUGGIE's wife paid supper falcons in $

Falana made valid points.. unfortunately the vulture-head puppet that was removed as CBN governor was just using dollars to enrich his circle of friends and the Northerners related to some Aso rock cabal leaders back then..

I have said it that only Yorubas have the interest of this country at heart, not the Igbos, not the Southern minorities and not even Northerners.

When did Nigeria start paying attention to legality?
Yet they will claim to be practiciing democracy and poke their nostrils in other people's affairs.

Parachoko:
There was a time I do consume imported peak milk from Holland or so, I never knew the kind of harm I was doing to Nigeria.

I think the Government should ban the importation of some things we produce in Nigeria, things like milk, cereals etc

What is produced here can not sustain us because thesame government have made doing business here a nightmare. Why do you think factories are closing down here in Nigeria daily? They ban the importation of rice but today our local rice is almost 50k per bag.

African currencies will continue to decline like Zimbabwe dollars until we come to our senses and realize Europeans, Americans and Asians used it to buy our talents, labor, resources cheap and brand our culture inferior by training our Youths.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.thenigerianvoice.com/amp/news/323164/unification-of-african-currencies-will-increase-its-local-va.html

Isn't this the same 'human right' lawyer that allegedly secretly spent N500 million buying a property from efcc or was it Amcon.

He parades himself like he is a paragon of virtue.