A Day in Dei-Dei

Metropole searches for new Naira notes in Dei-Dei

We all love crisp, new notes. Well, most of us, if not all. There is that feeling of pride when you flaunt new notes while offsetting your bills at the mall, or tipping the waiter at the restaurant, or spraying them at special occasions such as a wedding.

In times past, getting new Naira notes wasn't too tough a task. All you needed to do was to get to your bank and request for some while making a withdrawal. Most times, they were readily available. But these days, it is such a chore to get them.

This should be strange as the headquarters of the Central Bank of Nigeria is here. But at the moment, the apex bank which handles currency distribution is at the forefront of the cash-less policy campaign which aims to reduce usage of cash. This, I believe, has led to reduction in printing of new notes which has culminated in the shortage of our beloved crisp, new notes otherwise known as mint in Nigerian parlance.

But in the midst of this scarcity, there is a place in Abuja where new bank notes are on offer at a price. That place is Dei-Dei, a settlement between Kubwa and Zuba.

My trip to Dei-Dei in search of mint was an interesting one. Dei-Dei Market is popularly known for building materials. Just before the market is where you find the sellers of new Naira bills. They beckon on you unashamedly. Some literally hawk them. They are positioned in separate spots with bundles and packets of our national currency in tow. I elected to meet the young man who seemed most friendly.

I proceeded to business. After a little over five minutes, I gleaned that a packet (100 pieces) of N50 (which is N5, 000) sold for N7,000, while a packet of N100 (which is N10,000) sold for N14,000. Well, that was what he told a couple of customers initially but seeing that he had got comfortable with me, he asked me to pay N6,000 and N12,000 respectively as against the N6,500 and N13,000 he gave as last price to previous customers.

He didn't have stock of N200 bills, which I claimed was a priority for me. We exchanged numbers so that he will reach me when he has them. He said that banks don't open on Saturdays. So he would reach his contact on Monday. I proceeded to ask if his contact works in the CBN or in a commercial bank. It turned out to be the latter.

I assumed my task in Dei-Dei was complete. I was about to leave when a group of five young men surrounded me and asked me to hand over my phone. One was emphatic that he saw me taking shots. My heart skipped a beat. I had been taking pictures all along with my smartphone. But I was discreet—or so I thought.

Initially, I resisted and uttered words like ''what is the meaning of this embarrassment?'' For good measure, I added ''wetin I dey use una picture do?'' They weren't perturbed. They insisted. I thought I could play a fast one on them by presenting my Nokia phone. One of them just shouted ''Na Blackberry you use snap am!''

At that point, I knew that running away was not an option. I wanted the ground to open up and swallow me. With weak hands and a humble face, I handed it over.

The chief antagonist was unable to reach my photo gallery. He handed the phone to another fellow who didn't waste time in laying the evidence bare. One of them landed me a slap. I expected that. He accompanied that with ''who send you make you come here dey snap us picture?'' There was no way I was going to provide an answer to that. I made up my mind to see that as a rhetorical question. They deleted five pictures. I was lucky. Majority of them saw it as harmless shots considering that I didn't exactly capture their faces.

I collected my phone and tried to play the incident down with a speech. My tormentor-in-chief wasn't buying that. He stepped aside. He was on his way back armed with a plank when his colleagues gave me the cue to take off. As he took hurried steps towards me, I took more hurried steps towards the bus-stop.