Someone told me the value is still N1000 Naira, “but in this
Nigeria of ours, it will be rejected, couple of times, back to the holder
before he finally gets to spend it”, I responded.
Everyone I know prefers mint notes to the readily available
just-fit notes and the seriously-used, fragile mutilated ones. Bring out a fresh packet and people will be willing to exchange some and up their wallet’s
game. A colleague once said mints even
make some fools go hungry; they blatantly refuse to spend the ones they have
got in their wallets. Even a toddler, when offered an “untouched” note (like
folks around here call it) and a dying one, will quickly smile and leap towards
the shinning one. Someone said the beggars too have started refusing bad notes.
The intelligent Nigerian money-hawkers are not oblivious of
this. That’s why they always have mints readily
available for sale at a particular percentage. It is what they sell day in day out. Even when all the banks in
Nigeria including the CBN itself claim there are no mints at hand, these guys
have it. They are everywhere ranging from markets to churches and all around
event centers. I wonder what they say when they want to advertise their goods
“e ra owo e nawo o (buy money to spend o!)”, maybe.
I am not a freak for mint though. Give me all the mutilated
notes u have and I will collect them from you. I’m even thinking of starting a
business up in that line. I’ll call it MutiSweep. I’ll help change all the
money being rejected in the circulation to ones that you can still spend, for a
token too. Mine is different cos I won’t be offering mints in return. Be that as it may, I also will prefer to have
mints flashing in my wallet as against the “konde” collections I currently got.
Mint rules.
Not to deviate, I am not trying to promote the locations
where you’ll readily get mints to spend this Sallah. It was one of the bad
notes that was dispensed to me by my bank’s machine that prompted this. I
held that note with disdain and wondered if “this note too was once mint”. On the thousand note, Alhaji
Aliyu Mai-Bornu looked as sad as sadness itself, like someone being blackmailed, with stretch-marks all over him.
If you do not look closely, you will not know it is the picture of the first
indigenous governor of Central Bank of Nigeria. Dr. Clement Isong on the other
hand seemed to be crying. The look on his face was that of a prisoner who has
just been denied parole. I imagined the number of different places it has been
tucked, the number of pockets it has been squeezed. You know what I am saying.
I turned it both ways to reconsider it; it was really in a pitiable state.
There was a time, long ago, or not too long, depending
on the experience that particular note had, when it was mint too. Everybody
wanted it, it was pampered and spared until say, one day, the holder got
very broke and eventually spent it.
Maybe he bought roasted plantain and groundnut. As soon as mama plantain
confirms it was not fake, slips it into the you-know-where, not minding its
mint state. Later in the day, the farmer shows up with new supplies of unripe bunch of
plantains as usual, and after checking it out, mama dips her hand, stained with sap,
wax and charcoal, into the “foreign reserves”, sorts the money there-in and
hands it over to the farmer who folds it thoroughly before tucking it into
his inner pocket. Just maybe. The rest they say is history.
Pal, are you in a mint state right now and you are
feeling fly? Have you
got the tendency to look down on others because of their lowly state? Or you
just believe outright that you are simply the best and no one compares? This short write up is for you. Take a cue from it. No one knows tomorrow. No condition is permanent. Time and chance may just happen to you and things may just fall apart. Remember also that someone got it better. A $100 bill, as at today is 16 times minter than a N1000 note, so calm down.
For those out there who know deep down they are not there yet, I have good news for you: unlike in the currency story, where states
simply deteriorates, human state can move from bad to good. In our world, no
law reaches it that it must always get worse. You can consciously work your way to the top too. Work smart, pray harder, do things differently and try to break the habits. On a lighter mode, drink a lot of Peak Milk cos
greatness is in you.
I'll need a glass of milk myself to start with.
Have a great day.
