Defending the naira with guns
The bucks stop here. The state is desperate for someone to blame for a currency in freefall.
Adebayo Abdulrahman in Ibadan
The country is in one of its worst economic crises in recent years. In January, inflation in Nigeria rose to 29.9%, the highest in nearly three decades. And the state is looking for scapegoats.
Mallam Bashir, a Bureau de change operator at Sabo, a popular currency exchange market in Ibadan in southwest Nigeria, was at work on Wednesday morning before stepping out around noon. When he returned a few minutes later, officials of the department of state security and other law enforcement agencies had stormed the area.
“They just came in and started picking up everyone,” Bashir told The Continent on Thursday morning. He and others still don’t know how many were arrested.
Most of Nigeria’s foreign exchange transactions happen on the street, where currencies are more likely to be available than they are at a bank – albeit at a higher rate. With the currency in trouble – losing at least 230% of its value against the dollar over the last year – they are an easy target.
The incident in Sabo is one in a pattern of similar attacks by law enforcement agencies on currency exchange operators in major cities across the country. In Abuja, they shot into the air endlessly as people scampered to safety. In
Owerri, arrested operators were rounded up and assembled in the middle of the market.
The country’s national security adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, who gave the directive for these coordinated attacks, says it’s necessary to safeguard the foreign exchange market and combat speculative activities. He blames the groups for the failure of monetary policy measures taken by the Central Bank to halt the rapid depreciation of the naira.
The state has also blocked access to cryptocurrency platforms. Razaq Fatai, the research and advisory lead at Lagos-based consulting firm Vestance, said: “The government has been trying so many policy options lately and nothing seems to be working … People are protesting the cost of living so I think they are under pressure and acting wrongly out of desperation.”