The Worrisome Reality of Numerous, Dirty and Mutilated Bank Currency Notes, Ubiquitously, in Our Nation Nowadays – Patrick Ogbe

By Patrick Ogbe

Mankind tackled one of its most cumbersome societal problems by introducing paper money into virtually every nation and society across the globe. Before the advent of paper money, mankind engaged in the commercial act of buying and selling via a process that was referred to as “Trade by Barter.”

Trade by Barter is the oldest non-monetary system of exchange, involving directly swapping goods or services of equal value without using money. It requires a “double coincidence of wants,” where both parties need exactly what the other person offers. While largely replaced by currency, that is, paper money, it still exists in some rural low-income communities.
Since the advent of paper money into the economy of every nation, however, people no longer have to exchange goods for other goods or precious items for desired items or products before a would-be buyer can purchase wares from another trader. The introduction of paper money into the global society solved a lot of buying and selling problems for people everywhere. With the emergence of paper money into the affairs of mankind, individuals can buy whatever they want, pay for bought items and goods with cash, or currency notes, or the national legal tenders of nations of the world, and, by so doing, evade all the “trade travails” associated with the ancient, now archaic, commercial practice of “Trade by Barter.”

In as much as the emergence of paper money helped mankind tremendously in facilitating the practice of buying and selling, the introduction of paper money into the commercial activities of living man brought along with its advent particular peculiarities and issues. Unlike coins, whether made out of gold, silver, bronze, or copper, paper money has the likelihood to “wear and tear,” can be stained or soiled, can be torn, can become squeezed, can become dirty or defaced, and can, in some adverse cases, become mutilated. It seems that all newly printed bank currency notes have stipulated short life spans. In a country like Nigeria and one dare say, in many nations of the world newly printed paper money has life spans of about 12–18 months, while polymer notes last for 24–36 months.

Thus, in many societies and nations today, Nigeria inclusive, the issue for many people to ponder on is: “WHY ARE CRISP BANK CURRENCY NOTES SO SCARCE IN OUR SOCIETY?” Or, put in another way, “WHERE ARE OUR CRISP BANK CURRENCY NOTES?”

In Nigeria, crisp, clean, new bank currency notes seem to be scarce, ubiquitously, to an alarming rate, in all the nooks and crannies of the nation nowadays. It is even disheartening that, at times, when a bank customer goes to an ATM machine to withdraw money, paper money that is, the currency notes that the ATM dispenses are quite often old, worn out, dirty, or lacking in crispness. The situation, in many interjected situations, is not any better inside banking halls of many banks. For instance, if, as a customer, you seek to withdraw bulk cash from the counter at many banking halls, chances are rife that a large percentage of the cash, or rather bank currency notes that will be paid out to such a customer, will include bank currency notes that are worn out, torn, defaced, dirty, or mutilated. I am of the mindset that this trend is a bank etiquette that is a misnomer! As an individual, I have, on many occasions, made out ample time to repair (as much as I am able to) torn, defaced, and mutilated bank currency notes that are passed on to me, either from a banking hall, ATM machine dispensing cash, or from POS agents at their kiosks.

The same is the case for paper money, naira notes that are passed on to me as “change” or “balances” for purchases made during periods of personal trading intervals. At such instances, I try as much as possible not to complain or reject such “unwholesome” bank currency notes when they are circumstantially passed on to me.

As a “perturbed” Nigerian citizen, I, however, really feel that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has to address this unhealthy and unpleasant monetary trend in our country, and nation, and indeed, society.

The trend, and indeed muchness and ubiquity of dirty and worn-out bank currency notes, or rather paper money, in our nation nowadays, has become so alarming that this reality has become an issue for we concerned citizens of this nation to be “perturbed” about. The reality of unwholesome bank currency notes in numerous numbers in our society is especially rife in the Northern parts of Nigeria. For reasons that are not unconnected with lack of adequate care and proper handling by people, a large cache of currency note denominations in the core Northern parts of the country are everything but clean, new, and crisp. The same is the case with an array of bank currency notes that abound in the rural local government areas of this country.

Yes, traders, buyers and sellers alike, accept all the multitudes of unwholesome bank currency notes in circulation as legal tender in markets scattered across the said region. This does not mean, however, that the reality of numerous unwholesome bank notes in circulation across the nation is acceptable. It’s not as if one is making unnecessary complaints, in writing, about the “muchness” of unwholesome bank currency notes that abound in the country. The fact remains that worn-out, dirty, old, defaced, and indeed mutilated bank currency notes, in any society, constitute health hazards for people that abound in such a society and also for people that come in close contact with such “unwholesome” dirty currency notes. Not many people may like watching movies, both local and foreign.

However, for any avid movie watcher that may have watched the movie titled “CONTAGION,” the contents of the said movie reveal to its audience the truth that one single bank currency note, if and when handled by an individual that is infected with any form of disease or transmissible sickness, can cause a great deal of health hazards for other people who will come in direct contact with such a “stained” bank currency note or notes.

All over the nation, in the entire nooks and crannies of the country, one way or the other, somehow, somewhere, daily, people in the country touch naira notes and spend uncountable numbers and amounts of naira bank currency notes. People buy goods and household essentials and products, and pay for numerous services rendered to them mostly through cash payments. Now, cash payments require mandatory touching as well as handling of quantities of cash (that is, paper money). Now, the fact remains that no trader or service provider likes to be paid with torn, old, worn-out, defaced, or mutilated bank currency notes. In the same vein, no bank customer likes it whenever he or she is issued bank notes from any banking hall when such naira notes are not clean, crisp, and relatively new.

This, in my own candid opinion, is the point where the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and other relevant Federal Government regulatory bodies that are in charge of monitoring the array (and status) of currency notes in the nation at every given time have a herculean task to tackle in the country. One of such herculean tasks and assignments is finding a way of retrieving all the array of unwholesome bank currency notes in circulation in the country at all given times and replacing such with new, clean, crisp ones.

Also, I don’t think that it will be entirely out of place if, in sections of every banking hall, CBN mandates all its bank subsidiaries in the country to change old, dirty, and mutilated bank currency notes into new ones for affected bank customers at little or no cost at all. ATM machines, all over the country, should be loaded regularly with relatively clean, new ones at all times. It is forever a disheartening reality when a bank customer visits a banking hall, or ATM, or POS outlet, and justice is not rendered to such a customer pertaining bank currency notes that are acceptable, wholesome, and clean. If our banks, ATM machines, and POS attendants cannot give us crisp naira notes in this country when we have need of cash (paper money), where then can we find justice?

It is true that available facts and records of statistics reveal that it is expensive to print out new and crisp bank currency notes at intervals in any nation, Nigeria inclusive, for citizens to spend and trade with.

The appropriate authorities in the country just have to square up to this monetary task, however. Any chore or task that is unavoidable is a chore and task that relevant authorities just have to find a way of squaring up to its implementation. If the cost of frequently printing new bank currency notes for citizens and residents in the country to spend and trade with is becoming expensive for the Federal Government to shoulder.

I am of the mindset that the Federal Government of Nigeria should consider the reintroduction of metal money that is, coins in different denominations and value as legal tender also in the country. The Federal Republic of Nigeria, decades past, stopped the use of metal money as kobo as one of its national legal tenders. If, however, in modern-day times, the printing, maintenance, and frequent reprinting of old currency notes in the nation have started becoming very expensive, I feel the CBN should consider bringing back into the economy kobo as physical, spendable legal tender in Nigeria. Metal money, in the form of coins of various denominations, has peculiar advantages over paper money as the naira.

Over the years, and indeed over the decades gone by in Nigeria, I have had the privilege of coming in physical contact with some foreign currency note denominations, such as dollars, British pounds, euro, and Saudi Arabian riyal, etcetera. Of all the array of foreign bank currency notes that I have come in contact with in time past, not any of them was torn, defaced, old, worn out, or mutilated. Now, if foreign currency note denominations in the country are mostly clean, crisp, and relatively new, why can’t the same be the case with Nigerian naira notes ubiquitously in the country?

The currency notes, or bank note denominations, of any country or nation Nigeria inclusive are always “prime” in the day-to-day commercial affairs of such a country. All the nations of the earth, or rather world, have their individual currency notes, which serve as the legal tender of such a nation. For Nigeria, as we all know, the nation’s national currency and legal tender is the Nigerian naira. Although the kobo used to be a legal tender in Nigeria many decades past, Nigeria, as currently, does not use coins or metal money, or rather kobo, as a legal tender anymore.

The Nigerian naira is one of the nation’s national symbols. Among the many national symbols which Nigeria has as an independent nation, the naira is the one that is very prone to abuse by multitudes of people resident in the country. Daily (this is true), people squeeze, tear, deface, and stain the surface of the naira. Nowadays, in virtually all the nooks and crannies of the country, the currency notes that people come in contact with, and which people spend, are bank currency notes that are dirty, torn, stained, or defaced. This is so because we, the people, do not take adequate care of our national currency bank notes the proper way we should when such bank currency notes enter into our custody, momentarily, or before we spend them.

In this light, relevant Federal Government Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) should work in collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) from time to time to educate, enlighten, and sensitize members of the general public on proper handling of the naira and bank currency notes that are at every given time in circulation whenever such currency bank notes are in the custody of their owners.

Particularly, the National Orientation Agency, as a Federal Government parastatal, should be shouldered with the chore of working with CBN and other relevant money-related government MDAs so as to educate Nigerians, and indeed residents in Nigeria, at any given time, on how to avoid abuses of the naira and the array of naira currency note denominations that Nigeria, as a nation, has to parade.

National Orientation Agency, for many that are not aware of the said fact, as an established Federal Government parastatal, has the noble vision “to develop a Nigerian society that is orderly, responsible, and disciplined, where citizens demonstrate core values of honesty, hard work, and patriotism.” The said agency also has the onerous mandate “to consistently raise awareness, indoctrinate the mind of citizens with the goal of making them positively change attitudes, values, and behaviors, and sufficiently mobilize citizens to act in ways that promote love for the country, respect for the nation’s many national emblems and symbols, and also, in any way feasible, add to the national development of Nigeria.”

Shouldered with such a mandate, I don’t think that it would be out of place if, in the nearest future, the Federal Government provides the said agency with the necessary administrative enablement so that they and the Central Bank of Nigeria will work in dual collaboration to sensitize members of the general public on how to properly handle our nation’s paper money, that is, the naira, whenever we are spending it.

At this point, one must as well issue a timely and relevant advisory to members of the general public in Nigeria that touch, handle, and spend the naira often, now and again. The naira is not a writing pad. Do not write on it or scribble on its surface. We shouldn’t place it inside water or inside oil deliberately. We should not also allow our little children to tear it with any form of sharp object.

The Nigerian paper money, that is the naira, is “prime” among the array of Nigeria’s national symbols and deserves to be handled with due care and respect. Rather sadly, nowadays, in present-day Nigeria, in many circumstances and scenarios, the currency notes that citizens come in daily contact with are currency notes that are in dirty, torn, stained, mutilated, or worn-out conditions (which ought not to be so).

In Nigeria nowadays, it is not every time that one is lucky or privileged to come in contact with crisp, new currency notes. The currency notes that are usually available for citizens and residents in this country to spend as cash are naira notes that are in “worn-out” conditions. Not minding the condition of the currency notes which we come in contact with regularly, the onus, and indeed patriotic responsibility, lies on us to handle such currency notes with the due care that they deserve.

As patriotic citizens, we must not tear the naira note into pieces. We also must not cut off its edges with any sharp object of any type. We must not deliberately stain it. Spraying of currency notes on “certain people” at certain occasions is a common practice in different parts of Nigeria. This being the reality at most occasions in our society, it is advised that people take care not to trample on such currency notes that are being “sprayed” on particular dancing celebrants at any occasion.
Of all the national symbols that Nigeria can boast of, the most popular, the most commonly used by citizens, the most ubiquitous, and also the most easily handled daily everywhere is the Nigerian naira. This being the case, it behooves us that we handle the array of currency note denominations that are in circulation in our nation at every point in time with adequate care whenever we become recipients of such currency notes.

There are certain citizens, or individuals, that, by the virtue or nature of their jobs, are prone to staining, dirtying, squeezing, and/or mutilating a large percentage of the array of currency notes that are in circulation in the country at every given time.

Motor mechanics, for example, are prone to soiling bank currency notes that enter their custody. Similarly, individuals that are into trades of repairs of generators, motorcycles, and industrial machines are prone to soiling the surface of bank currency notes easily. Then there are tradesmen and trade-women, such as bricklayers, meat and fish sellers in the market, and butchers of livestock in abattoirs. Then also, there are traders that sell wares in the market, such as red palm oil, vegetables, and smoked fish, etcetera. Also, some citizens that sell petrol motor spirit (PMS), diesel, and kerosene at petrol stations situated in different parts of the nation. These aforementioned categories of tradesmen and trade-women have a habit of “squeezing” naira currency notes that are in their custody whenever they are at their duty posts. Then there are also commercial bus conductors.

All such categories of Nigerian citizens need to be adequately and regularly educated and enlightened on how best to handle the Nigerian paper money, the naira, whenever they become recipients of any of the country’s currency note denominations. The use of wallets, purses, waist pouches, and little boxes where to place currency notes during trade and business transactions: all such measures should be advocated for individuals that are into handling the naira on a daily and/or regular basis.

We all touch money daily. We all spend paper money daily. Money is the most ubiquitous of all things among mankind. I am sure that no citizen likes it whenever torn, worn-out, defaced, stained, or mutilated currency notes are given out to anyone requiring cash. For now, the fact remains that there abound multitudes of torn and worn-out bank currency notes in circulation in the country today. Not minding this fact, however, it doesn’t have to be you that will become a culprit in the unpatriotic practice of tearing, squeezing, defacing, or staining the paper money of the nation. Collectively, in all ways possible, let us stop the abuse of the Nigerian naira. God bless Nigeria.

Name: Ogbe, Patrick, Adaofuoyi.
E-mail: patrickogbe18@gmail.com
GSM phone no: 08162590444
Contact address: Flat 1, First Floor,
Pal. Royal Estate, Mararaba, Karu
LGA, Nasarawa State.