Ooni of Ife calls for clamp down on Dollar hoarders

The Federal Government has been advised to clamp down on Nigerians who engage in hoarding Dollars.

The Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi gave this advice on Saturday during the graduation of 150 women tricycle riders, held side-by-side with the adire exhibition by South-West adire makers.

Oba Ogunwusi also urged Nigerians to patronise locally-made fabrics (adire) instead of foreign ones in order to strengthen the naira.

The call is coming amid the continued depreciation of the Naira in the foreign exchange market.

The Ooni, who said Nigerians must work on their cravings for imported goods to save the naira, also called on the government to go after those hoarding dollars.

In his words, “Honestly, we are the problem of ourselves in this country. Why do we need dollars? We don’t need dollars. Our legal tender is naira. We buy things with naira, so why the pressure on the dollar?

“I implore the government to be very strict. They should go after people keeping dollars, even in their local banks. It doesn’t make any sense because that is not the legal tender of our nation.

“If we patronise our own products in this country, there won’t be pressure on the dollar. The exhibition of our local fabrics, we are very happy about it. We implore the government to be involved in this kind of initiative from time to time.

“Government should promote initiatives like this (adire). These are home-made goods, 100 per cent made with naira. Our leaders should do more. They should wear Nigeria, they should talk Nigeria, they should reason Nigeria.”