Former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has urged the Bola Tinubu-led federal government to step up efforts in recovering foreign currencies stashed in private vaults by certain individuals within Nigeria.
Speaking at The Platform Nigeria event to commemorate the 2024 Democracy Day, Dogara emphasized the necessity of addressing the prevalent use of the US dollar within the Nigerian economy.
Highlighting the widespread preference for the US dollar among Nigerians, Dogara stressed the importance of reversing this trend to restore faith in the national currency, the naira.
He proposed a solution of unlocking the considerable reserves of dollars held in private vaults across the country to stimulate economic growth and stabilize the foreign exchange rate.
Dogara stated, “The USD is not going away anytime soon. The challenge before the government is how to unlock and make the USD locked up in private vaults in Nigeria begin to chase the naira. That to me, is the commonsensical solution. I believe we have enough dollars in this country that we can unlock to make our economy work and crash the FX rate.”
Dogara also said government should make it a policy to sell crude oil in naira and not in dollar.
“To achieve this, the government must demand that all Nigerian exports, including crude oil exports, be paid for in naira, just as we don’t pay for any import into Nigeria from any country in naira. It’s not too much to demand that.”
He urged the government to leverage security agencies to identify and investigate individuals hoarding dollars in private vaults.
He further articulated, “Government through credible intelligence generated by security agencies ought or should know those individuals in Nigeria who have taken advantage of the system and they have idle USD stashed in their private vaults.
“Should they fail to respond, it is my considered opinion that Mr President should invoke and apply the MBS solution, the Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud in Saudi Arabia.
“No one who has taken advantage of the system should have the liberty to store in excess what his or her country desperately needs in other to lift millions of its people out of multidimensional poverty,” he added.
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