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  • Updated: February 16, 2023

2023 Elections: Too Late For Excuses From INEC

2023 Elections: Too Late For Excuses From INEC

In light of INEC's cry  yesterday over the cash scarcity only 10 days to an all-important election, it cannot be stressed enough to both INEC, FG, and CBN that the red line regarding these polls has been crossed and there is no going back.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) recently expressed concerns that the cashless and currency swap policies of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will pose a challenge to the successful conduct of the forthcoming general elections. 

The expressed concern by INEC is coming less than 10 days before the February 25 presidential and national assembly elections.

According to the commission, if nothing is done to address the cash crunch caused by the policies, INEC would find it difficult to deploy staff and materials for the election as most of the services required cash to obtain.

INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Yahaya Bello, stated this in Abuja on Tuesday at the North-central Stakeholders Roundtable on the 2023 election, organized by the Centre for Transparency Advocacy (CTA).

Bello maintained that apart from the cash challenge, the Commission was prepared for election as it has taken delivery of 80 per cent of materials for the polls and trained staff ahead of the exercise.

“Honestly, I don’t see challenges because the commission has made a lot of preparations.

"A lot of materials have already been gotten. We have done some training.

"We are doing more training. We have made a lot of consultations with stakeholders.

"A lot of materials have been batched to the area councils which is the local government level.

“When you talk about the challenge, sincerely, the challenge to this election as we are going about now in the FCT and by and large, I believe all over the nation is the cash policy.

"Because we have already enumerated and made our position clear to the authorities; the CBN, the federal government and what have you exactly how we conduct elections.

“This is something that is not only FCT as I said is nationwide and is being tackled at the national level.

"If there is any challenge for me now conducting this election is to wait and hear the outcome of the discussion and the brief from my national commission (chairman) for whatever they have discussed with the CBN and other authorities with regard to this policy.

"We are ready for this election", he said.


Verdict

We strongly believe in President Muhammadu Buhari's sincerity and commitment toward hitch-free and high-fidelity polls come February 25, 2023. 

Let all the officials concerned be reminded that there is so much at stake regarding these elections.

First, any bungle of this transition process will cast a slur on the Buhari-led government and the ruling party, APC. 

For instance, how do you explain the fact that there is no cash to fund election activities and there's no adequate security to prevent the breakdown of law and order as an excuse under an incumbent regime whose party is the ruling party?

Who takes ownership of the Naira redesign policy as well as the redeployment of the state security apparatus as possible reasons to scuttle the polls?

Secondly, any reasons for scuttling these elections can only go down in history as premeditated afterthoughts.

Third, there are palpable pointers from all quarters for the eventual disintegration of the Nigerian state and the failure of these polls may as well be the long-awaited catalyst and fuel and President will not want to go down history lane as the one under whose watch the tipping scale got smuggled in.

Fourthly, the international community will have a lot of stories to tell about Nigeria with existing backlogs of negativities.

As the legal saying goes, 'caveat emptor' - let the buyer beware!

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