Who needs N5000 note by Matilda Orhewere

Surveys and reports of the
World Bank, the international
Monetary Fund (IMF), and other
international economic
regulatory bodies have shown
that the larger number of
Nigerians live on less than $2
per day, which is barely
sufficient for decent human living
conditions.
The gulf between the poor and
the rich has grown so wide and
it continues to grow because of
the high propensity of
government officials for abusing
and diverting the authority that
comes with the position to
secure economic gains for their
private and personal use. These
corrupt government officials,
politicians, companies and
business people who have
benefited from the corrupt ways
of Nigerian leaders, are the
people who need five thousand
naira notes.
Why? The world economic
regulatory authorities and the
West classify Nigeria among the
backward and under-developed
nations of the world mainly for
the simple reason that financial
transactions and economic
exchanges are not traceable.
This is because of the deliberate
ploy of corrupt leaders to
shroud all financial transactions
of government in a thick cloud of
darkness that is impenetrable by
light.
International aids, grants and
others that enter the Nigerian
economy disappear without any
trace; revenue and income from
trade in Nigeria’s natural
resources disappear without
trace as well. Taxes and duties
also cannot be conclusively
traced. Government funds that
are recovered from corrupt
leaders and refunded to
government coffers also
disappear without any trace.
Bank accounts are opened in
local banks as well as offshore
accounts; funded with Nigeria’s
economic earnings and the
Minister of Finance is not aware
and does not know who opened
the accounts or who operates
the accounts.
The world economic regulatory
authorities and the West insist
that to be welcome as an
emerging economy, Nigeria’s
financial transactions must show
records of how money moves
within the Nigerian economy.
They insist that Nigeria must, as
much as possible, imbibe the
culture of transacting business
with as little cash as possible and
do more business online with
adequate records to show for
such transactions.
Nigeria was compelled to
introduce a cash-less payment
system that reduces the amount
of physical cash that is being
moved around within the
economy. The corrupt leaders
have seen that it is quite
cumbersome for them to be
providing records of their
transactions; and have thus
cleverly devised a diversionary
means of taking Nigeria
backwards by introducing larger
denominations of the naira.
Is it the Nigerian whose total
monthly take-home earning
ranges between five thousand
and thirty thousand naira that
needs five thousand naira
notes? If a single one of such
notes gets lost, his budget for
the month will be greatly
hampered.
Who really needs to carry a lot
of physical money around?