A 75-year-old female merchant on Friday rejected four pieces of N1000 new naira notes found inside a wrap of N100,000 she withdrew from the counter of a new generation bank in Ikeja, Lagos State capital.

Identified as Mama Ketchup, the woman argued that the new naira note has lost its value as a legal tender in the country, referring to it as a “product of fabricated deceits of the leaders.”

She insisted that the cashier should remove the new notes and replace them with old pieces before she collects the wrap.

Her words: “I don’t want these notes. It is an insult on Nigerians. The cabals that are embarrassing us and driving Nigerians back to Egypt are evil workers. They have their agenda and they are using us to play ludo, it’s unfair. I have vowed never to touch this note, it’s my personal decision. So, remove them now and replace them with the old notes.”

The scenario, which drew the attention of other bank customers at the rowdy hall turned provocative as each person began to express his/her disappointments at the way the government is toiling with the life of citizens without considering its consequences. They particularly condemned the persistent fuel crisis after the subsidy removal and politics of N8000 palliatives for poor Nigerians proposed by Tinubu-led government.

Some of them said the role played by the suspended governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, to change the naira notes during the election campaign through draconian processes that led to the death of many Nigerians has shown how irresponsible the government has been since independence.

A corps member, Joy Emmanuel, who was the ‘emergency moderator’ of the argument in the banking hall said the Tinubu-led government has confused Nigerians with the way and manner it has been handling sensitive issues that touch lives since its inauguration on May 29, 2023.

“When the president announced the removal of fuel subsidy on inauguration day, we thought he has a magical solution to our problems. This Renewed Hope government has come with a basket of confusion. For real, the hardship is too much. See what you elders have done to this generation. Yet, with a little noise of revolt, you will be blaming the youth. We are all suffering and nobody is ready to confront the Pharaohs. It’s a shame of a country,” he said.