THE BELIEF THAT NIGERIA’S CULTURE REJECTS COIN IS A FALLACY.

For the past one month, the most talked about topical issues rocking the nation and diverting attention of the populace from all the unfortunate event in the country, like; oil subsidy fund misappropriation, the embezzlement of pension fund, the Boko Haram insurgents, the failed cashless policy project of the Central Bank etc., has been the currency restructuring; introducing higher currency value and coining of lesser currency note.

The apex bank in Nigeria has come up with so much to there defense, which in totality, sums up to nothing on the side of the people they represent. Nigeria’s most revered economist, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, has also come out in support of the Central Bank saying it will in no little way culminate into inflation in the economy of the country, while other economist has also come down heavily on the Central Bank of Nigeria, saying it is a free invitation to inflation in the country and was done with little or no consultation and not in the best interest of poor masses. Now the question is, who is confusing who in Nigeria? Is it going to come down to who attended the best school and excellently passed his economics course? We ordinary Nigerians have our fingers crossed as these drama unfolds.

Summation from the side of the masses on the coinage of lower denomination notes, drawn from the history books and recent happenings, and strongly tying it to our way of life, and the general behaviour of the people towards the coin, is absolutely wrongly perceived by the people. Everything is tied on the value attached to the coin. Before now Nigerians go through trade by bater and later moved to native white bead till they transformed into the use of coin and, Nigerians welcomed it whole heartedly, because there is a value attached to it, it can be exchanged for goods and services. But todays Nigeria where things are now totally different from what it use to be, the N1 coin can not buy us anything from the market hence, the rejection of coin.
I still remember in those days, people who believed one thing or the other is affecting there children, they go for consultation from the hands of native doctors and they are asked to buy our native calabash, put some food  in it together with some few coins and drop it at place where two or more roads come together, this days we hardly come across such sacrifices with coins but instead with Naira notes, this signifies to our government that even the spirits no longer accept coin. How many times have our leaders attended burial or marriage ceremony and see people spray coin on the celebrants, where it has always been a show of affluence when they attend. Gone are those days when we give coin to children when going to Church because even Churches today have reasons to drop the coins, nor  do we see our university students doing there annual rag-day celebration and we give them coin. It will be most surprising if the student don’t stone the person with the coin. Another soul searching question for the Government to answer is, how much coin can they find in there pockets?

Reiterating the fact that Nigerians will accept coin if it has great value still hold water if the higher denomination are converted to coin. Imagine where the five and one thousand Naira note are coined, the five and two hundred Naira note are also coined, no Nigerian in his right frame of mind will ever reject coin. Both men and women will go as far as to sewing a cloth tied to there waist to carry the  coin. It is not a thing of culture nor a thing of character that we do not accept coin but a thing of negative change in threshold of events in the country, Nigerians are susceptible to change. Give Nigerians reasons to accept coin and they will accept and spend it without complain.