President Muhammadu Buhari came under heavy attacks on Thursday hours after his national broadcast on the cash crisis swap.
Lawyers and public commentators berated the President for ordering the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to retain only the old N200 notes as legal tender until April 10, 2023.
The Court on Thursday reaffirmed the ruling, shifting ruling on the case to February 22.
Buhari, in a broadcast on Thursday morning, following violence in some parts of the nation over rejection of the old notes and scarcity of new notes, ordered only old N200 note should be reintroduced and retain as legal tender until April 10, 2023.
His order elicited wide condemnations with many hitting him for disobeying orders of the highest court of the land.
Human Rights lawyer Dr. Monday Ubani said: “There was an interim order which says there should be a stay of action until all grievances are looked at because unfortunately many other states are joining the suit, and the Supreme Court saw the wisdom in giving room for other parties to join so that there will proper parties before it before going ahead to look at the issues on its merit, that was why there was an adjournment yesterday.
“But unfortunately what the president has done this morning is ignore whatever is going on at the Supreme Court.
“When you say you will only allow old N200 to be in circulation, it means old N500 and N1000 are no longer legal tenders.
“My own understanding of what has taken place is that he has overruled the Supreme Court. He’s clearly not mindful of what is going on at the Supreme Court with what he has just done.
“I am not too happy with what has happened this morning in terms of the president overruling the Supreme Court. We are not telling the world that we are practicing democracy. It is not a proper precedent.
