Editorial: Mr. President Cannot Trample on the Rule of Law Over Naira Policy

We are compelled to revisit a remark which was made by President Muhammadu Buhari in March 2015 ahead of his election as the candidate of the All Progressive Congress.
The then candidate begging Nigerians to consider him as their next President, he had told the world that though he was a military man, he had become a “converted democrat.”
We wish to remind Mr. President that democrats do not, under any guise, trample on the constitution and the rule of law.
Democrats respect the court and their decisions. And democrats, unlike military leaders, subject themselves to the dictates of the constitution, regardless of how inconvenient the provisions are to their personal desires or the wishes of the administrations they superintend.
The above are in contrary to what came out of the nationwide speech of the president on Thursday February 16, 2023 where he unilaterally took a decision which automatically brushed aside the decision of the Supreme Court on the old Naira notes.
We are miffed by the audacity of the president to have made his pronouncements as if the subsisting order of the apex court is not there at all. What manner of advice does our Number one citizen get from his Attorney General of the Federation that could urge him on this journey of perdition?
Mr. President, let this medium remind you of what is called the rule of law and another one called the separation of power.
You as the head of the executive, cannot usurp the duties of either of the other two arms of the government – the Legislature and the Judiciary. The powers are different but mutually existent for a seamless working of the Nigerian system.
The order of Justice Inyang Okoro-led panel of the Supreme Court is unambiguous and made in clear terms. It said that pending the determination of the substantive suit, all the old Naira notes should remain as legal tenders. The validity of this order is extendable to February 22 when the Supreme Court is expected to reconvene for hearing and possibly determination.
For the president to make an order extending the life of only N200 and demising the old N1000 and N500 is a clear violation of the law.
The medium is with Mr. President on his battle against illicit funds, vote-buying and other forms of destructive practices of the greedy. We admit there is nothing strange in changing the Naira. We also reason with the president over the huge percentage of Nigerian money that is outside the banking system and therefore making control of the money in circulation nearly impossible.
But we cannot cut off a head in order to cure headache. The population of Nigerians bearing the brunt of this flip-flop cannot just be ignored.
Just in case this government has forgotten, it has created a higher population of idle youths whose anger and belligerence you cannot measure when you open up your flanks for them to take temporary control of the streets.
There is unrest already. And Nigerians can only hope that what lurks in the corner does not come near the Endsars catastrophe in forms and cruelty.
As it stands today, it is not too late to review and let the law take its course. The government places at a very high risks all the investments of the last one year towards conducting the 2023 general elections if nothing is done to stem this tide. It looks like a bad wind that would blow no one any good. This should not be too hard for a “converted democrat” to do.
A word is enough for the wise.