Omoyele Sowore, the convener of the #RevolutionNow movement, has took to social media platform X to question the status of the e-Naira, a digital currency initiative that has failed to live up to its initial promise.
The digital currency was introduced by former President Muhammadu Buhari and Godwin Emefiele, the immediate past Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Sowore also stated, tongue-in-cheek, that the e-Naira has been replaced by something called “T-Pain’s T-NAIRA,” a play on words combining the names of President Bola Tinubu and American singer T-Pain.
President Bola Tinubu has been dubbed “T-Pain” by Nigerian citizens on as a symbol of their growing discontent with his administration’s poor performance and bad economic policies.
The nickname for President Tinubu came from a satirical remix of T-Pain’s track ‘Buy U A Drank’ by Nigerian satirist Bello Galadanci, best known by his stage name Dan Bello.
‘Buy U A Drank’ was released in 2007 by the American singer and songwriter, whose real name is Faheem Rashad Najm.
But unlike the original version, Dan Bello’s remix titled ‘Nigerians, I Go Make You Poor,’ is about the economic hardship caused by the policies of President Tinubu’s administration, including fuel subsidy removal and flotation of the exchange rate.
“Where is @Mbuhari and @GodwinIEmefiele’s E-Naira? Has it been replaced with T-Pain’s T-NAIRA?”
“Government of Scammers!”, Sowore added.
The Nigerian Central Bank, under the leadership of former Governor Godwin Emefiele, introduced the e-Naira digital currency with two applications—the eNaira Speed Wallet and the eNaira Merchant Wallet—available on both Google Playstore and Apple Store. The launch followed the Buhari government’s decision to prohibit banks and financial institutions from dealing with cryptocurrencies.
Emefiele claimed the e-Naira would make Nigeria “one of the first countries in Africa, and indeed the globe, to adopt the digitisation of its national currency.” However, despite initial optimism, adoption of the e-Naira has been slow, with less than 0.5% of Nigerians using it a year after its launch. In fact, as of 2024, most e-Naira wallets are reportedly inactive.
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