WRITTEN BY MMADUABUCHI EGBE
Currency is the pride of any nation. It is a medium of exchange of goods and services. Currency is any kind of money that is in circulation in an economy,
used to buy goods and services. It is a means of measurement and the basis for trade. It includes coins and paper notes.
The use of currency dates back to 600BC in Lydia, now part of Turkey. During that era, coins were used as a medium of exchange. However, in 1661AD, bank notes were introduced. This evolution replaced trade by batter, which was hitherto a means of exchange.
In Nigeria, the Nigerian pound was the country’s currency between 1907 and 1973. However, on January 1, 1973, the naira was introduced to replace the pound at the rate of two naira to one pound. Coins were also introduced in denominations of half, one, five, ten and twenty-five kobo, with the half and one kobo in bronze and the higher denominations in cupro-nickel. This made Nigeria the last former British colony to abandon the Esd currency system in favor of the decimal currency system.
The value and type of currencies vary distinctively with countries of the world. Thus, today, such currencies as the US Dollar, European Euro, Japanese Yen, British Pounds, Nigerian naira etcetera are visible in our world.
It is saddening, however, that the Nigerian currency, which should be protected, cared for and appreciated as a symbol of national identity, faces different levels of abuse on a daily basis. This flagrant abuse ranges from defacing of the currency through mindless squeezing of naira notes to the spraying of the legal tender in some social events. This has, over the years, generated a lot of criticisms from well meaning Nigerians.
Conventional wisdom has it that one hundred naira note is one currency that faces most of the dreadful abuses and mishandling in the country.
In a bid to curb the menace of high naira abuse, section 21 of the CBN act was promulgated in 2007. This act makes it an offence for naira abuse such as squeezing, staining, writing on it, spraying and illegal sale among others, a punishable offence. The act also states that the offender is liable to a fine of not less than fifty thousand naira or a jail term of six months or both.
However, in spite of this legal postulation, cases of naira abuse remain unabated within the Nigerian society. This might not be unconnected with the fact that those saddled with the responsibility of arresting and punishing the culprits have turned out to be the accomplices.
It must be pointed out that an abuse of any currency has ravaging effects on the economy of the country. It devalues the economy and consequently plunges the economy on the precipice.
The practice of spraying money on social gatherings, the most common shared form of abuse, which has become almost a culture in the country, cuts short the live span of our currency and causes the nation a big cost to replace them. Constant indulgence in such illegal act will see the economy crumble. Thus, all hands should be on deck to check the menace.
There are myriads of socially acceptable ways that can be used to send money as gifts. Monies can be enveloped instead of flaunting and spraying them on the celebrants, thereby defacing and debasing our national identity. More so, the life span of our currency could be preserved when we arrange the naira notes in a wallet instead of squeezing and crumpling them inside our pockets.
Police and other security agencies should live up the billing in ensuring that they enforce the provisions of the law and consequently arrest and prosecute the offenders of naira abuse to serve as deterrent to others. Let us save our naira and save our national identity.
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