By Abiodun Fijabi
In my primary school days, I was young, careless and sloppy. Mom kept replacing my lost items, even after she had vowed never to do so again. Even then, my sloppiness in the handling of my chores drew her ire more than my carelessness. I would play football all weekend until 5.00 pm on Sunday, when it would dawn on me that I needed to wash my school uniforms. My mom would watch me sweat over the washing and the foolish pleading of a child for the sun to stay up a little longer to dry my uniforms. Each time I was in this panic mode, my mother’s indignation was livid, as she walked past. And while I was still dazed from a couple of her slaps, I would hear what had become her refrain – “Igbayi laaro e.” It was a sarcasm, meaning, ‘by this time of the day?” Or, more contemporarily, “Too little too late.”
The Central Bank of Nigeria is in its own panic mode, for the first time in the nearly two months of acute cash shortage that has impacted all of our lives. We have received news of some banks opening till 5.00 pm and all bank branches being compelled to open this Saturday and Sunday, as the CBN flung open its vaults and mopped up the old Naira notes that it once claimed had been destroyed.
The recalcitrant CBN had defied the order of the nation’s highest court with impunity. It flinched a little bit when on March 13, the President disclaimed the report that it had asked the CBN governor and the Attorney General to disobey the Supreme Court. That was the day the old notes officially became legal tenders again – almost two weeks after the apex bank made its pronouncement. On that same day, the CBN governor broke his silence by releasing a statement to refute a trending allegation that he was financially supporting a Lagos governorship candidate against the candidate of the ruling party, ostensibly to further embarrass the President-elect. The governor found his voice. But it was all rhetoric and no action.
Then came the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) call for a national strike, starting Wednesday, March 29, and the governor jumped out of his cabin like a drunken sailor faced with imminent danger of hitting an iceberg. He not only found his voice, but his feet and his wit. As he commandeered banks to open this weekend, he promised to personally supervise the process of relieving the despondent nation of his misguided cash crunch policy.
While the Rome of our economy and peace burned, the Nero in our CBN governor fiddled in loud silence and active inaction. An estimated 20 trillion Naira has been lost to the economy. Our lives have hung on a balance. National productivity has hit an all-time low. National disgrace has never been this openly and flagrantly displayed. Faced with a national strike that would further cripple the economy and unleash mayhems on already impoverished populace, the governor has rushed to wash his clothes at this late hour, hoping that the the flickering sun of our understanding and hope will dry his white washing to prevent an imminent catastrophe.
Like my mother, the nation giggles at the governor’s panicky effort and say to him with all the disdain in their cracked voices, “Igbayi laaro”. Too little too late.
