COURT ORDERS ARE FOR PARTIES.  

I would have loved to call this a part two of my last article “New-Naira notes: El-Rufai and others head to the Supreme Court”, because the incident flows therefrom. However, the issues here need to be addressed distinctly. It is no news that as a result of the action (case) instituted by the trio governors (Nasir El-Rufai, Yahaya Bello & Bello Matawalle) against the “Attorney General of the Federation” at the Supreme Court, the Justices of the Supreme Court gave an interim order restraining the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and commercial banks from implementing the  February 10^th, 2023 deadline for the use of the old 200, 500 and 1000 Naira notes as legal tender in Nigeria.

You might actually need to go through my previous post to clearly understand a few things I would be saying here.

A court case is like a “battle” where you have to have the right weapon, know the real opponent (your enemy) so as to attack him squarely. If you shot a bullet at the wrong person, the battle would be of no use.

The “battle” here is clearly between the trio governors and the body in charge of releasing the new notes and implementing the said deadline. That means the real enemy here is “the Central Bank of Nigeria”, and that is who the trio governors should be attacking.

On the surface of the Suit (case), the “PARTIES” are AG of Kaduna state, AG of Kogi state, AG of Zamfara state on one side, and the AG of the Federation on the other side (as the enemy). A “Party” simply means the person before the court.

The “bullet” here is the Order of the Supreme Court which the governors got against the AG of the Federation.

Herein lies the issue I have with this “battle”. The real enemy is the CBN and its governor, Godwin Emefiele. It is CBN that has the power to change the legal tender, it is the CBN that changed the Naira notes, it is the CBN that gave the deadline, it is the CBN that would enforce the deadline through all commercial banks which it regulates. The AG of the Federation has nothing to do with this whatsoever. Why then did the trio governors not make the CBN and its governor parties to this suit (case) at the Supreme Court? I am certain their lawyers must have told them that it is only parties to a Suit(case) that are bound by orders of the Court in that Suit. You cannot make an order on someone that is not a party to the suit, and expect that someone to be bound by the Order. That is not how it is done.  So, when bringing an action to Court, you must get your parties right. You must know who the real enemy you intend to fight, so there is no need to throw bullets randomly.

The bullet that has been shot was shot against the AG of the Federation, who is not in charge of minting new notes neither is he in charge of the activities of the Central Bank of Nigeria. So, of what use is the said order if it didn’t hit the main target. The trio governors have the wrong man.

I actually have no idea why they did not sue the CBN and its governor at the Federal High Court instead.

As it stands, there is no order from the Supreme Court against the CBN or its governor, and the order against the AG of the Federation is of no use, because, the AG has no business with implementing the deadline as set by the CBN governor.

Note: I am not saying that the CBN governor would not comply with the order. I am saying that if he chooses not to, there would be no implication whatsoever.

I keep saying it, litigation is beautiful.

Now, am I saying that you should disregard the orders of the Supreme Court? Definitely not. I am simply saying that you should act discreetly. Hold your new notes close to you, and try to get rid off the old ones. This is a battle between two elephants, and you know what happens when two elephants fight. Don’t get caught in the cross fire.