Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has opposed a suit before the Federal High Court in Lagos State seeking to remove the Arabic inscriptions also known as Ajami on naira notes.
The apex bank, giving a reason for the opposition, told the Federal High Court that it would cost a huge amount of money to discard the existing notes and print new ones without it.
It added that the Arabic inscription is not a symbol or mark of Islam, but an inscription to help non-English speakers or uneducated populace who are literate in it to ease trade.
CBN made the submission in a counter-affidavit to a suit filed by a Lagos-based lawyer, Chief Malcolm Omirhobo, before Justice Mohammed Liman.
The lawyer, Chief Malcolm Omirhobo, who filed the suit before Justice Mohammed Liman, contended that having Arabic inscriptions on the naira notes portrays Nigeria as an Islamic state, contrary to the country’s constitutional status of a secular state.
Omirhobo, who said he does not know what the Arabic inscriptions mean, is seeking the court to order the CBN to replace the Arabic inscriptions with either English language, which is the country’s official language, or any of Nigeria’s three main indigenous languages – Hausa, Yoruba or Igbo.
The lawyer said that with the Arabic inscriptions on the naira note, the CBN violates sections 10 and 55 of the Nigerian Constitution, which makes the country a secular state and wants the court to restrain CBN from further approving, printing, and issuing naira notes with Arabic inscriptions, bearing in mind that Nigeria is a secular state.
Section 10 of the constitution reads;
The government of the Federation or of a state shall not adopt any religion as state religion.
CBN, in its counter-affidavit deposed to by Abiola Lawal, argued that;
The Ajami inscriptions on some of the country’s currencies do not connote any religious statements or Arabian alignment.
The apex bank maintained that contrary to Omirhobo’s claim, the Arabic inscriptions were not a threat to Nigeria’s multi-religious status.
CBN said;
The inscriptions on the country’s currencies do not and at no time have they threatened the secular statehood of the nation, nor have they violated the Constitution of Nigeria, as every design and inscription was finalised with the approval of the relevant government bodies.
The apex bank explained that the “Ajami inscriptions” on the naira notes date back to the colonial era “and they do not imply that Arabic is an official language in Nigeria”.
It added;
The naira notes retained the inscriptions with Ajami since 1973 when the name of the Nigerian currency was changed to naira from pounds.
The Ajami was inscribed on the country’s currency by the colonialists to aid those without Western education in certain parts of the country, who, back then, constituted a larger part of the populace.
The Ajami is not a symbol or mark of Islam but an inscription to aid the populace uneducated in Western education in ease of trade.
