Mr Johnson Ademola, born on November 13,1959, who is an employee of the Lagos State University, was reported to have collapsed in a bank queue while waiting his turn to withdraw cash.

The incident reportedly took place on Monday, February 20, 2023. The deceased left his office to withdraw money from a Wema Bank branch located on campus. He was the financial officer for the faculty of law and an executive officer in the accounts department of LASU.

The bank only allowed customers to withdraw the sum of N5,000 naira. Mr Ademola was waiting his turn in the queue when he suddenly slumped.

Consequently he was taken to the school’s health centre and efforts were made to resuscitate him but all was futile. He was later certified dead in the University Health Centre.

Furthermore, the acting Coordinator for the Centre for Information and Public Relations, LASU, Mr. Olaniyi Jeariogbe, confirmed the incident.

Nonetheless, he made it clear that, contrary to what several media sites had claimed, the deceased was not one of the institution’s deputy bursars.

Mr Olaniyi Jeariogbe said,

“LASU does not have only one deputy bursar. And as I speak, all our deputy bursars and the bursar are alive, hale and hearty. I needed to clarify that.

The man who died was the CEO Accounts and was until his death the Financial Officer of the Faculty of Law.”

In addition, he said Mr. Ademola went to the bank between 11 a.m. and 12 p.m. to conduct some private business, and he learned of his passing quickly after.

Ademola’s death was attributed by the LASU community to the crisis brought on by the Central Bank of Nigeria’s naira redesign program.

After The Central Bank Of Nigeria’s announcement of the naira redesign strategy on October 26, 2022, there have been various disputes.

Emefiele, the governor of the CBN, provided justifications for this strategy. Emefiele claimed that Nigerians were hoarding 85% of the cash in circulation, which was not in banks.

The redesign of naira notes, he continued, will prevent ransom payments to terrorists and kidnappers as well as counterfeit notes.

The January 31 deadline was later extended to February 10 after a meeting between the CBN governor and the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.).

However, the implementation of this policy didn’t exactly manifest as people had thought. Instead, it has caused many unfortunate incidents and distress to the citizens of Nigeria.

Ranging from the scarcity of naira because the new notes are yet to circulate across Nigeria while the old notes are no longer in use, to starvation of families who can not buy food due to the inability of banks to dispense new notes.

Due to the shortage of Naira, Point Of Sale (POS) employees are forcing Nigerians to pay outrageous amounts for the currency because, in their opinion, getting their hands on the new notes is difficult.

However, this infuriated the populace, who then set fire to POS stands and banks as a form of protest. This also resulted in fatalities.

Nasir el-Rufai, Yahaya Bello, and Bello Matawalle, the governors of Kaduna, Kogi, and Zamfara states, respectively, had taken the Federal Government to the Supreme Court over the naira redesign strategy. Until the case is being heard and decided, the apex court has given an interim injunction preventing the apex bank and the FG from executing the February 10 deadline for the old N200, N500, and N1,000 notes to cease being legal money.

The apex court has adjourned the hearing till Wednesday, February 22, 2023.

Ironically, the CBN and the FG have insisted that the February 10 deadline remained. The CBN governor said the apex bank was not joined in the suit, hence it would not be affected by the Supreme Court ruling.

In addition, the President announced that the old N500 and N1,000 notes had ceased to be legal tender in a nationwide broadcast on Thursday, February 16, just 24 hours after the apex court had postponed the hearing of the ongoing suit until February 22. This is in defiance of the apex court’s ruling and extends the validity of the old N200 note by 60 days from February 10 to April 10 before it too loses its legal tender status.

Nigerians put their hope into the upcoming Presidential election in four days, hoping their saviour will emerge from the election on Saturday, 25th February 2023.

Will this misery come to an end?

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