SINCE the Central Bank of Nigeria under Professor Chukwuma Soludo's watch decided to insist on the people treating the national currency with some respect, and the translation of this concern into law as in Sections 20 and 21 of the CBN Act of 2006, Nigerians have openly defied the law or pretended as if it does not exist. Informed commentators have even had cause to doubt whether there is actually a law banning the abuse of the naira. Y. Z. Yau expressing his cynicism in a piece in the Daily Independent of January 25, 2008, wrote: "I am not a lawyer so I do not know which statute this law comes from".

Writing in the Sunday Tribune of January 13, 2008, Tunde Fagbenle, the ace columnist, also asked: "Where did Charles get his powers to decree jail or fine from? Has it been passed as an Act of the National Assembly parliament? If so, then the National Assembly folks are more jobless and unthinking than I had thought. Of all the critical national issues begging for an Act, is "spraying" of naira notes at parties the most urgent?" The latest objection to the campaign against the abuse of the national currency for which the CBN continues to purchase advertisement space in the mass media, is from King Sunny Ade, Nigeria's leading juju musician.

At a recent press conference in Lagos, the musician declared that "spraying is part of our tradition and culture." Sunny Ade then proceeded to give a lecture on the history of how an older generation of Nigerians sprayed cowries at parties. He wants government to review the law banning the spraying of Naira at parties. True, there may be an element of self-interest in Sunny Ade's objections. He is probably one of the leading beneficiaries of the culture of money spraying at parties. Although musicians bill those who invite them to perform at Nigeria's numerous parties, and they receive part or full payment in advance, they also rake in a lot of revenue from admirers who paste local and foreign currencies on their foreheads in the course of their performance at social events. .

For the avoidance of doubt, a law indeed exists which bans the abuse of the Naira in any form. On April 12, 2006, the Olusegun Obasnajo administration sent an Executive bill to the National Assembly which in part, sought to check the abuse of the national currency. Titled "A Bill for an Act to Repeal and Re-enact the Central Bank of Nigeria Bill 2006", its debate on the floor of the Senate on Tuesday June 13, 2006 resulted in an uproar. Senator Jonathan Zwingwina was the main promoter of the Bill, and he had waxed lyrical about the need to introduce a law that will protect the national currency from all forms of abuse including "stumping, engraving, mutilating, piercing, stapling, writing, tearing, soiling, squeezing..."

Zwingina had hardly taken his seat when his colleagues tore the Bill into pieces, with the usual arguments that there are more important things that can be done to protect the economy, and that in any case, spraying the Naira at parties "is part of our culture." Senator Mohammed Daggash (Borno North) was quoted as saying: "It will be foolhardy to think we can outlaw spraying of Naira at ceremonies...it's our traditional way of doing things." Zwingina who had proposed the Bill had to plead that he would rather stand down the Bill and re-introduce it at a later date. He later reportedly confessed that it was not "his Bill". "I told the CBN Governor that it was an unpopular Bill, " he said.

The bill was later debated, a public hearing on it was held, and it was passed into law. On Monday, May 28, 2007, hours before he left office, former President Olusegun Obasanjo assented to the law. The new law became the Central Bank of Nigeria Act 2006, it repealed the CBN Amendment Act of 1999. The Act deals with other issues including the powers of the CBN but the more popular and controversial Sections 20 and 21 of the Act forbid all manners of abuse of the Naira. The penalty for the flouting of the law as stated in Section 21 is "imprisonment for a term of not less than six months or a fine not less than N50, 000 or both fine and imprisonment."

In effect, those who continue to blame the CBN Governor Charles Soludo for waging a war against the people's love of spraying overlook the fact that the ongoing CBN campaign in the media is based on an existing law. Perhaps Soludo attracts the attacks unto himself because of the position he occupies and the determination with which he has been campaigning that the Naira should be accorded some respect, in part because it costs government more money to reprint defaced naira notes. But Nigerians are not impressed. They handle the Naira in infinitely self-expressive ways.

The Naira oftentimes functions as a note pad, it is used to write down addresses or phone numbers in the absence of a sheet of paper. If a man needs to remove wax from his ears and he can't immediately find a cotton bud, he simply turns the Naira note into a cotton bud! The Naira can also be used to remove dirt from the nails. Market women keep Naira notes in their bras. And should you have any transaction with them and you need to collect change, they simply dip their hands into you know what and bring out a soaked Naira note, which is quickly thrust into your hands, all mixed up with sweat, body odour, and if you are dealing with a nursing mother, you are sent off with some whiff of mammary milk!. The size of a market woman's breast is a thing to behold in the course of a day: it goes up and down depending on how much Naira he is keeping in her bra-purse. The use of a purse is not very popular among many Nigerians. Men also keep money in their shoes or socks.

But it is at parties that the abuse of the Naira is most evident. Nigerians love parties: in spite of the pervasive poverty in the land: the birth of a new child, the completion of a new building, the purchase of a new car, funerals, weddings... the first thing you would notice is the presence of those young boys and girls who sell crisp Naira notes. The banks give out dirty notes to their customers, but at the venue of parties, the Naira is hawked like a bag of sweets: the exchange rate depends on the denomination: N1, 200 for clean N1, 000 notes, N11, 700 for clean N10, 000 notes etc.

At every party, the special moment everyone waits for is the celebrant's dance. If you sit down and refuse to join the dance, or you sneak away, and you do this too often, you would be labeled a miser and treated as an outcast. The special dance is a way of raising funds, and special arrangements are made for the collection of money that is sprayed. As soon as a Naira note is pasted on the celebrant's forehead, it goes straight into a bag, or a sack.

And a video camera is carefully trained on you to record how much you are willing to donate. But this is where the fun of the party is. Some Nigerians have devised special ways of spraying the Naira at parties. The scope of creativity is limitless. One rich fan of King Sunny Ade throws bundles of money at him. Others may squeeze the note, dance stylishly and throw the notes into the air causing a scramble. Others lay out the Naira and dance on it as if it were a carpet. At such parties, the man who sprays more Naira is noticed and treated specially by the host, the musician, and the ladies.

The law against the abuse of the Naira has not had much effect on this habit. In the past few years, however, people have been a bit more restrained more out fear of the EFCC rather than the CBN. There are also those die-hards who insist that they have every right to spend their money as they wish. Increasingly, US dollar notes, pound sterling, and even the CFA are now being spent at parties around Nigeria. It won't be long before it will be possible to buy crisp dollar notes at parties in Nigeria. The aforementioned law does not talk about the dollar or the Euro.

Sunny Ade is right about culture, but the culture that we should worry about is not the culture of old, but our contemporary way of life. The Naira will continue to be sprayed because it is in line with the average Nigerian's love of exhibitionism. I once attended a party where one guy ran out of money on the dance floor and he didn't like the idea that the musician was now paying attention to another fellow who was spending a higher denomination. He left the party abruptly and rushed home to bring more money! The spraying of money is part of culture because Nigerians worship money.

How else would the neighbour know that you are rich if you do not show how generous you are by treating the Naira as if your problem is how to spend it. Culture is resilient here also because the police are not enforcing Sections 20 and 21 of the CBN Act of 2006. Who is the policeman who would arrest anyone spraying or selling or squeezing the Naira? He will simply ask for his own share of the money! Besides, the police who are supposed to enforce the law also abuse the Naira. Have you not seen the police picking up squeezed Naira notes on the roads, or hiding the Naira inside dirty containers? Also, will a man be arrested for squeezing the Naira and throwing it to a beggar or a mad man? What Nigeria needs is complete value re-orientation.

The test of any law lies in its enforceability but ultimately in its acceptance by society. With the disdain with which Nigerians are ignoring both the campaign and the law against the abuse of the national currency, the law may well end up as a dead law, like the law on bigamy.



Reuben Abati

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I am what I am.