ABUJA– CHAIRMAN, Senate Committee on Reparations and Repatriation, Senator Ned Nwoko, PDP, Delta North has reiterated his call for ban on the use of the United States Dollar and other foreign currencies as means of exchange and payments for goods and services in Nigeria.
According to Nwoko, the use of foreign currencies in Nigeria, their presence and apparent dominance in the financial system has relegated the local currency, the Naira to the background and impacted negatively on the latter’s value, adding that he had remained passionate about the idea because the proposed ban holds the key to Nigeria’s economic freedom and growth.
Speaking with Journalists weekend, Senator Nwoko noted that there was an urgent need to prohibit the use of foreign currencies in Nigeria, described the use of the Dollar, Pound Sterling and other foreign currencies as a colonial hangover, portraying a situation that though Nigeria gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1960, but was yet to attain economic independence sixty for years later.
The Senator who drew a nexus between value of the Naira and the state of the economy, stressed that Nigeria cannot achieve prosperity if the citizens continue to place premium on foreign currency rather than promoting the use of their local currency.
Nwoko who noted that the poor state of the Nigerian economy had been largely responsible for the myriad of social vices such as terrorism, banditry, kidnapping and armed robbery and the general state of insecurity in the country, said, “I’m just trying to link it up with the economy and crime because both of them go hand in hand.
“The more people are comfortable and richer, the less crime. The more hungry and desperate they are, the more crime. It just like that. Do you think somebody will give me a gun now and say come and rob a bank? Or cone and become a bandit or a kidnapper? No. I cannot and I will not because of my background and level.
“We say the economy is bad; we say there is banditry; we have Boko Haram, we have ISWAP , we have ESN and all other groups here and there.
READ ALSO: Our victories in Edo, Ondo, not a fluke, APC boasts
Miss Universe: I’ve made history, Chidinma Adetshina celebrates first runner-up position
“I’ve said that there is only one solution that I know. It is not by giving the military more guns to go and kill our fellow citizens. No. It is not by locking some of them up in Kirikiri Maximum Security Prison or the Kuje Medium Security Prison. No. That is not what all stop the side into anarchy We can look at one- stop shop solution to the problem.
“I keep talking abut it because I’ve seen it work around the world. If you go to the United Kingdom, United States of America or France, the only currency they use in those countries are their local currencies. Dollar is a global currency. From the time when we gained our independence or they gave us freedom as it were, invariably our people did not understand that we got political independence but we don’t have economic independence.
“Economically, we are totally dependent on the West and that’s our problem. How do WD depend on them? They made us to use their currencies but we have never been able to convince any of them to use our own currency.
For our economy to improve and for you guys to live well, and comfortable, so that even when they pay you N200,000 or whatever they pay you, you can live on it. For that to happen, the Naira must become a global currency. What does that mean? It means that if you have your N10,000 and you are in America, or United Kingdom, you can exchange it into their currencies for you to use.
“Currently, you can’t do that. Nobody is stopping you from taking Naira to London; you can carry it on you head if you like; you can put it in a box if you like, but you get to London and you give it to them, it is of no value. If fact one you leave they will throw it onto the waste bin because it has no value.”