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by Brian Shilhavy
Editor, Health Impact News

Is the fear over the adoption of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) being over-hyped?

Nigeria has been used by some as an example of what may be coming to the U.S. in terms of rolling out a CBDC, as Nigeria is the first major country to do a mass rollout of CBDCs and attempt to replace cash.

But now one year later, it appears that the rollout of the Nigerian CBDC, the eNaira, has been a total failure, as their Supreme Court has ruled it is “unconstitutional,” and there are calls for arresting the head of the Central Bank in Nigeria.

And in an article published today, March 23, 2023, it is being reported that the Nigeria Labour Congress is calling for public sector workers to start a nationwide strike next week, protesting at Central Bank branches, which could cripple the entire country. (Source.)

Nick Corbishley, writing for nakedcapitalism.com, recently reported an update on how the eNaira was doing in Nigeria.

The Central Bank of Nigeria Just Paused Its Demonetisation Program After Visiting Untold Damage on Nigeria’s Economy

Excerpts:

Three months after the central bank launched demonetisation, economic conditions in Nigeria continue to deteriorate. Now, one of the country’s leading media organizations is calling for the arrest and prosecution of CBN’s governor.

Nigeria is the world’s first largish economy to launch a nationwide central bank digital currency, the so-called eNaira. So far, it has been a complete flop.

One year in, just 0.5% of Nigerians had downloaded the eNaira app. Of those, only 8% were actually using it, according to the IMF’s 2022 staff report.

So, the government and central bank doubled down on their strategy. In October, they unveiled plans to replace all high-denomination cash bills in the economy as well as restrict cash withdrawals.

That, too, has been an unmitigated disaster.

This week, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) finally postponed its demonetisation program, more than a week after the country’s Supreme Court ruled the program unconstitutional and more than a month after the Supreme Court called for it to be postponed due to the amount of chaos and hardship it was causing.

In an editorial last Saturday, the online newspaper Premium Times called for the arrest of prosecution of CBN’s Governor Godwin Emefiele, arguing that the cash withdrawal limit imposed by the central bank is an infringement on the rights of the people.

Nigeria’s outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari is still yet to comment publicly on the Supreme Court’s ruling, prompting a stinging rebuke from the Nigerian Bar Association. The association’s president said in a statement this week:

“This is the greatest test or challenge to our constitutional democracy and the Executive cannot afford to disregard the ORDERS of the Supreme Court made for the benefit of the people that elected it to power. I therefore, on behalf of all Nigerians, call on the President to immediately direct compliance with the terms of the orders made by the Supreme Court in its judgement delivered on 3 March 2023″.

The CBN began calling in old 200-, 500- and 1,000-naira notes in mid-December in a bid to mop up excess cash, rein in inflation, combat rising insecurity, curb vote buying and further “entrench” a cashless economy.

But the central bank failed to print nearly enough new high-denomination notes to replace the old ones, leading to an acute shortage of cash in a still heavily cash-based economy. The result has been unnecessary hardship for millions of Nigerian citizens, countless business closures and significant all-round damage to the country’s already weak economy.

Declining Trust

The CBN’s prime objective in culling cash was to leave people with little choice but to use digital payment methods, ideally the eNaira.

Among its list of reasons for pursuing demonetisation, published in October, the CBN said the redesign of the currency will “help deepen our drive to entrench a cashless economy as it will be complemented by increased minting of our eNaira.”

Also in October, the central bank’s governor, Godwin Emefiele, said: “The destination, as far as I am concerned, is to achieve a 100% cashless economy in Nigeria”.

It remains to be seen whether the eNaira has benefited at all from the cash cull and the swamping of commercial banks’ digital payment systems, but it is unlikely given the CBDC’s still substantial infrastructure issues.

In fact, in late February the CBN announced plans to partner with private sector fintech firms to develop a new system to run and manage the eNaira — something it should have done long before embarking on this insane experiment.

Another problem the eNaira has is that most Nigerians cannot even use a CBDC since they do not own a smart phone or have access to the Internet. Of Nigeria’s approximate population of 220 million, between 25 million and 40 million people actually have a smart phone. More than half of the population is unbanked.

In other words, the overwhelming majority of Nigerians had no possible means of using digital payment methods even if they had wanted to. They were given an impossible choice from day one.

Many of them took to the streets to protest the restrictions and cash shortages. Banks were vandalised; some were even burnt to the ground.

A month ago, at the height of the protests, a coalition of civil society groups demanded that the CBN issue the new notes and end the suffering of millions of Nigerians. (Read the full article here.)

Why are U.S. Politicians Suddenly Opposing CBDCs?

U.S. Congressman Tom Emmer of Minnesota, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas.

Within the past 30 days or so, several U.S. politicians have come out publicly against Central Bank Digital Currencies.

They include: U.S. Congressman Tom Emmer (R-MN) who has introduced a bill that would prohibit the Federal Reserve from issuing a CBDC directly to anyone, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem who vetoed House Bill 1193, which would have amended the provisions of the Uniform Commercial Code in the state which would have included Central Bank Digital Currencies as money, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis who recently held a press conference in which he stood at a podium labeled “Big Brother’s Digital Dollar,” proclaiming that Florida shall be a CBDC-free state, and Texas Senator Ted Cruz who is reintroducing legislation to the U.S. Senate that would prohibit a direct to consumer Federal Reserve-issued CBDC.

What do these four politicians all have in common?

They are all Republicans. You know, the party that used to hold the position that “all vaccines are safe and effective and the science has been settled,” which was the position of ALL politicians, both Democrats and Republicans, until it was decided by the GOP in 2022 that it was OK to oppose one kind of “vaccine,” the COVID shots, and therefore made it a political issue.

And of course they only adopted this position AFTER hundreds of millions of Americans had already received their shots.

This GOP position on the COVID shots, however, did not result in any action to either STOP injecting Americans with COVID-19 bioweapons, nor hold accountable those who approved them.

So do we now trust them on their opposition to Central Bank CBDCs?

What is the Real Plan on CBDCs?

I don’t trust them, and when several prominent figures in either major political party in the U.S. all of sudden start taking the same position on a specific issue, it is time to look behind the rhetoric and see what really might be happening.

This is purely speculation on my part at this point, but this is a tactic that the Globalists have used for most of the modern history in the U.S. when overall public support begins to decline on a specific topic, as began to happen in 2022 when a large portion of the population began to wake up and realize that the COVID shots were not what they were advertised to be.

Get one party to take a position on the issue, so that the other half of the country who opposes that party, automatically takes the opposing position. As long as you keep the public divided in a two-party system, this is always a trick the Globalists can pull.

So in 2022, as public opinion and demand for the COVID shots began to decrease, they simply made it a political issue, almost assuring that about half the country would then continue supporting it.

I suspect something similar is happening now with CBDCs. The cat is out of the bag, so to speak, and public opinion is probably trending against CBDCs, and in places like Nigeria we are seeing disastrous results.

It was time to make this a political issue, and of course they chose the Republicans, because one way or another CBDCs are coming, as the Federal Reserve has already announced that the instant-payments service FedNow will begin to be implemented later this year in July, and they will probably target lower income Americans who are dependent upon government social services, the majority of whom support the Democratic Party.

So in my opinion, having prominent members of the GOP start opposing this is a sure fire way to adopt support among the Democrats and get at least 40% to 50% of the country to support it.

As I have previously reported, it is nearly impossible to implement CBDCs overnight, and replace the entire monetary system. It could literally take years to do something like that.

But implementing digital IDs, in a program similar to what is currently being used in Ukraine and has been in existence since 2014, is a much greater threat and possibility than the implementation of CBDCs. See:

Ukraine has Become the Model Worldwide for Digital IDs and the Complete Digital Transformation of Society

This can be more easily accomplished by using existing digital payment systems, especially with the major credit card providers, such as Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and AMEX.

All of these companies already have the ability to digitally track ALL of your transactions, and they have been testing the waters recently on providing credit card usage data to government authorities, such as threatening to track all firearm purchases.

This where we, as Americans, regardless of our political affiliations (I actually have NO political affiliation as both parties are thoroughly corrupt), have to RESIST!

I recently closed an account with a major credit card company I had used for 25 years, for this very reason, and my online ecommerce store stopped using Paypal for payments last year, which had been more than 30% of our sales.

We are now in negotiations with other online payment providers that allow for eChecks and direct bank transfers, for those who want to purchase our products without using a credit card, and we are also looking at one online payment solution that allows one to use cash for online payments.

We have to start preparing for the day when the major credit card payment companies may stop serving us, or when they require an online digital ID to continue using their services, which will then force us as an ecommerce store to stop offering their payment services to purchase our products.

If enough people resist these companies who want to track everything we do and give our data to the government, this will then open up doors for new companies to arise to serve those who resist.

The power is in the hands of the consumer, NOT the politicians who are mere puppets for Wall Street and the Bankers.

Resistance is NOT futile, and the Nigerians today are proving that. But if we are to be successful in our resistance here in the U.S., we MUST STOP supporting our political heroes, and stop attacking our fellow Americans who hold different political views than our own.

Comment on this article at HealthImpactNews.com.

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