- CBN introduced new naira notes on December 15, 2022 and planned to phase off the old notes on January 31, 2023
- The 2023 general elections witnessed the most competitive elections in the history of Nigeria.
- President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration introduced subsidy removal on May 29, 2023, leading to high inflation rate in the country
For good number of Nigerians, the year 2023 remains one of the most unforgettable years in the history of the country.
Many events, incidents which occurred in the year have imprinted in their memory such indelible imagery that 2023 will never be forgotten in a hurry.
Naira Redesign
On January 31, 2023, the old naira notes in Nigeria ceased to be regarded as legal tender.
According to the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN the new naira notes would replace old naira notes would take from January 31, 2023.
However, with the introduction of the new naira notes on December 15, 2022, the tone was already set for what rather become the most chaotic and traumatic monetary policy Nigerians have ever experienced.
Millions of Nigerians were sort of forced to deposit their money into the Money Deposit Banks with assurance of getting the new designed naira notes, which they obeyed.
However, what followed was far from what they expected. There was no new naira notes, yet the old naira notes were no longer legal tender. The only available transaction method was transfer platform, which was not even always available and reliable.
Everyday, tens of thousands of bank customers besieged their mother banks, demanding for their deposits.
Sanity and civility were thrown to the dogs as many bank customers were seen, removing their clothes inside banking premises to press home their demand for their deposits. Many customers were seen sleeping around Automated Teller Machines, ATMs in the night waiting for loading of elusive new naira notes.
However, when the new naira notes were eventually released, many banks’ staffers cashed in on the opportunity and started “selling” the notes to some big shots in the society.
At Point of Sales, PoS, many operators have no cash to give out to the teeming customers.
Those operators who have the cash charged as much as N4,000 to withdraw N10,000.
Some banks were touched by their irate customers for “refusing” to allow them make withdrawal either through ATMs or across the counter.
As the chaotic situation continued, some Nigerians lost their life as they couldn’t access cash to cater for their medical emergency.
A 31January deadline initially set for ending the legal tender status of the old Naira notes was extended to 10 February as the supply of the new notes fell far short of the volume needed by citizens to meet their most basic needs across the country.
On 3 February, three state governments – Kaduna, Kogi, and Zamfara – citing the hardships the continued scarcity of naira notes brought to their people – sued the federal government at the Supreme Court for a reversal of the policy.
Five days later, the court issued an interim order suspending the implementation of the deadline set by the federal government, and directed that the old and new Naira notes should continue to circulate pending the resolution of the case.
Unmoved by the court’s order, the CBN insisted that the old notes had stopped being legal tender after the 8 February deadline while the scarcity of the new notes persisted.
In defiance of the Supreme Court’s order, Mr Buhari, on 16 February, restored the validity of the old N200 notes, insisting that the N500 and N1000 notes had ceased to be legal tender.
At the resumed hearing of the suit on 22 February, the number of plaintiffs rose to 16 after six new states joined the three initial plaintiffs.
The 16 states that became plaintiffs in the Naira redesign suit include: the original plaintiffs – Kaduna, Kogi, Zamfara – and the seven that were joined on 15 February – Cross River, Sokoto, Lagos, Ogun, Katsina, Ondo and Ekiti states.
The rest are the six others that were joined on Wednesday – Nasarawa, Niger, Kano, Jigawa, Rivers and Abia states.
Rivers and Abia states had filed separate suits that were consolidated with the main one.
Before then, two states – Edo and Bayelsa – joined the side of the federal government to oppose the suit.
However, in March the Supreme Court extended the validity of the N200, N500, and N1,000 Naira notes till 31 December.
A seven-member panel of the court led by John Okoro unanimously directed that the CBN must continue to receive the old notes from Nigerians
The court held that the directive of President Muhammadu Buhari for the redesign of the new notes and withdrawal of the old notes without due consultation is invalid.
Emmanuel Agim, a member of the panel, who read the lead judgement, also condemned the President’s disobedience of the court’s 8 February order that the old N200, N500, and N1,000 notes should continue to circulate alongside the new ones.
He said the president’s broadcast of 16 February that only N200 notes should remain legal tender made Nigeria’s democracy look like a mere pretension while democracy is replaced with autocracy.
“It is not in doubt that the President refused to comply with the order of the court that the old 200, 500, and 1,000 naira notes should continue to be legal tender,” the court said.
“Interestingly, there is even nothing to show that that the President’s directive for the release of N200 notes was implemented.
“I agree that the first defendant ought not to be heard when the president has refused to obey the authority of this court.
“Disobedience of order of court shows the country’ democracy a mere pretension and now replaced by autocracy. This suit is meritorious.”
However, on November 29, the Supreme ruled that the old naira notes will continue to co-exist with the new notes till further notes.
The court maintained that the old and new notes should remain as legal tender beyond December 31 until the Federal Government puts a process in place for their replacement or redesign after due consultation with relevant stakeholders.
Campaigns/2023 general elections
The 2023 general elections in Nigeria remained one of the most fiercely contested elections in the history of Nigeria.
Before the elections, the opposition parties like Labour Party and People’s Democratic Party have already carried out unprecedented campaigns, reaching out to the citizens on why the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC should not be returned to the power again.
The All Progressives Congress on its own equally carried out massive campaign, soliciting for votes while promising to revitalize the ailing economy.
By and large, after the Presidential election, on March , the APC candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu was declared winner by Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
Mr Tinubu defeated 17 other candidates who took part in the election. He scored a total of 8,794,726 votes, the highest of all the candidates, thus meeting the first constitutional requirement to be declared the winner.
He also scored over 25 per cent of the votes cast in 30 states, more than the 24 states constitutionally required.
INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu, who announced the final results in the said Atiku Abubakar of the PDP came second in the election.
Atiku polled a total of 6,984,520 votes in the election.
Peter Obi of the Labour Party came third in the election with a total of 6,101,533 votes while Rabiu Kwankwaso of the NNPP came fourth with 1,496,687 votes.
Only the top four candidates won the presidential election in at least one state. Each of Messrs Tinubu, Atiku and Obi won in 12 states while Mr Kwankwaso won only in Kano.
However, winning a majority of states is not a requirement for a candidate to be declared the winner of the election.
In any case, the two opposition party candidates, Mr. Peter Obi and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar went to court to contest the election result.
Finally on October 26, the supreme court affirmed the election of Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Fuel subsidy removal
On May 29, 2023, during his presidential inaugural speech, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu announced total removal of fuel subsidy.
Few minutes after the announcement of the fuel subsidy removal, tens of thousands of filling stations across the country adjusted their pump price from N185/litre to N617/litre.
It was a terrible moment for millions of families in Nigeria as prices of goods and services skyrocketed with the same proportion.
Few days after, the pump price was adjusted to N670/litre, thereby sending more millions of Nigerians into poverty line.
To this end, Nigeria’s annual inflation rate continued to climb to 27.3% in October 2023, the highest since August 2005, up from 26.7% in the prior month.
According to National Bureau of Statistics, inflationary pressures have intensified over the recent months due to the government’s elimination of fuel subsidies in May and the naira currency’s weakness, which followed the Central Bank’s decision to reduce interventions in the foreign exchange markets in June.
Prices of food, which is the most relevant in the CPI basket, picked up to 31.5% in October, the highest since August 2005, from 30.6% in the prior month, amid persistent security issues in food-producing regions.
Guiness world record
In March 2023, Hilda Effiong Bassey, a 26-year old Nigerian chef, restaurateur and actres announced she would be attempting the record for the longest cooking marathon.
The record was previously held by Lata Tondon whose cooking marathon lasted for 87 hours, 45 minutes in 2019.
On 11 May 2023, the actress popular known as Hilda Baci started her record attempt titled “Cook-a-thon”. She broke the record on 15 May.
However, on Monday May 15, 2023, at exactly 7:45 am, Hilda broke the record for longest cooking marathon by any individual hitting 87 hours 50 minutes above the previous record holder in 2019.
On Tuesday, May 16, 2023, Guinness World Records spokesperson released an official statement on its website saying: “We are aware of the record attempt and are looking forward to receiving the evidence for our Records Management Team to review, before we can confirm the record is official.”
To set a new record of the longest cooking marathon, Hilda was originally set to cook for 96hrs, but later extended her goal to a 100 hours cooking marathon.
On June 13, Hilda Baci was confirmed as the new record holder.
The record was confirmed nearly a month after the GWR reviewed footage from the cookathon, which lasted four days.
“I can now announce that with a time of 93 hours and 11 minutes, Hilda Baci is the new holder for the Guiness world Records title of the longest cooking marathon,” an adjudicator simply identified as Mark, said in a video posted on the official Twitter handle of the Guinness World Records Tuesday.
Hilda Baci’s Guinness World Records attempt and subsequent success opened a flood gate of attempts for other Nigeria in various areas including write-a-thon, etc.
Mohbad
On September 12, 2023, the music industry in Nigeria lost a fast rising star to the cold hands of death.
Ilerioluwa Oladimeji Aloba, popularly and professionally known as Mohbad was a Nigerian rapper, singer and songwriter from Lagos state.
The 26-year old Mohbad was born on 3 January 1996 and died on 12 September 2023 leaving a big vacuum in the industry.
He was formerly signed to Naira Marley’s Marlian Records and left the label in 2022. He was best known for his hit songs “Ponmo,” “Beast and Peace,” “Sorry”, “Feel Good,” and “KPK (Ko Por Ke)” (You Will Always Be Remembered) with Rexxie, which was nominated three times for The Headies awards 2022.
After two years, he announced his departure from Marlian Records. On 5 October 2022, MohBad accused his manager, singer Naira Marley, of assault and stated that his former boss ordered people to beat him up after he announced his intention to employ a different manager to handle his music and business affairs.
However, after MohBad’s controversial death, it was reported that he had earlier filed a police report in June 2023 alleging that Samson Erinfolami Balogun, a music promoter nicknamed “Sam Larry” and a known associate of Marley’s, had assaulted him and destroyed some of his property.
In the report, MohBad said that Larry had interrupted a video shoot, leading a group of 15 men armed with firearms and cutlass who claimed to work for monarch Oba Elegushi.
In any case, Police later said MohBad had not attended a subsequent meeting to address the allegations, and that Balogun and others accused of the assault had then filed a defamation complaint.
Elegushi released a statement distancing himself from Balogun and expressing condolences on MohBad’s death.
By and large, while this was going on, protests broke out across major cities in the country, demanding justice for the alleged murder of the music star.
Though his body was exhumed for autopsy on September 21, he is yet to be reburied.
African footballer of the year
After nineteen solid years of winning African Footballer of the year 1999 award by Kanu Nwankwo, no Nigerian footballer has won the coveted award.
However on December 11, the god of soccer remembered Nigeria as the seemingly elusive title was won by Nigeria.
Victor Osimhen won the award amid tight contest and great expectations from other contestants.
The Napoli player beat Egypt’s Mohamed Salah and Morocco’s Achraf Hakimi to the prestigious award – the first time a Nigerian has picked up the title since Nwankwo Kanu in 1999.
It was a double success and celebration for Nigeria with Asisat Oshoala retaining the women’s award – the sixth time the Barcelona forward has won the accolade.
The winners are voted for by a panel consisting of Caf’s technical committee plus African media professionals, head coaches and captains. Clubs involved in the group stages of Caf’s continental competitions also have a say.
Osimhen triumph
Napoli striker Osimhen, 24, was tipped to pick up the Caf award for the first time in his career after a stellar 2022-23 season.
Findings by WITHIN NIGERIA revealed that Osimhen scored 26 times in 32 appearances, including the decisive goal that sealed the Scudetto in May and won Napoli their first Serie A title in 33 years.
He was also named the Italian Footballer’s Association Player of the Year earlier this month after an outstanding season.
The Lagos-born Osimhen scored five goals in four Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualification matches as his country reached next year’s finals.
Record showed that he also became the first Nigerian to finish in the top 10 of the Ballon d’Or vote with an eighth-placed finish and was made a Member of the Federal Republic in his homeland.
Asisat became the first Nigerian footballer – male or female – to score in three World Cups.
Barcelona star Oshoala made it a night to remember for Nigeria, winning the Women’s Player of the Year title for a record-extending sixth time.
The 29-year-old – who went to the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand this year – retains the trophy she won last year.
She beat off competition from South Africa and Racing Louisville’s Thembi Kgatlana and Zambia and Shanghai Sengli’s Barbra Banda.