2023: Economic hardship may impact citizen’s participation – Yiaga Africa

By Tobias Lengnan

Yiaga Africa, a Civil Society Organisation, (CSO) has said that the current hardship being experienced by Nigerians may lead to voter apathy adding that some other citizens may be disenfranchised by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)’s actions and inactions.

The organization also said in an attempt by the INEC to decongest some of its oversized polling units, relocated voters to new polling units without notifying the electorates.

Chairman, Yiaga Africa, Dr Hussaini Abdul who stated this in Abuja during a pre-election press briefing said voters approached their polling units for mock accreditation before realizing they have been relocated to new polling units.

He noted that a persisting array of complaints about uncollected PVCs largely due to the unavailability of the cards are worrisome adding that a good number of eligible voters may be disenfranchised for no fault of theirs.

The chairman further expressed concern that the Commission is yet to release the list of PVCs collected per polling unit nationwide maintaining that data on PVCs collected per polling unit remains important in determining the conclusiveness of the election as this figure is expected to be used in applying the margin of lead principle.

According to him “Nigerians are currently experiencing untold economic hardship caused by the recent scarcity of new naira notes and perennial fuel scarcity. This has led to a series of protests in different parts of the country. This growing discontent amongst citizens may lead to voter apathy in the form of “protest” which will eventually lead to low voter turnouts. We are also worried that citizens facing these forms of adversities going into the election may be unable to make informed choices at the polls.

“The current Naira redesign policy and scarcity of legal tender are aimed to fight vote trading on election day, the prevailing hardship it has come with may even make it easier for voters to relinquish their votes in exchange for the scarce currency.

“All through the pre-election period, security challenges have consistently reared their ugly head. Beyond the existing security challenges of insurgency, banditry and kidnapping, the prevailing security situation leading to the 2023 Presidential election has been further escalated by the tense political atmosphere.

In a similar development, the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) in a pre-election brief signed by the Election Analysis Centre (EAC) Chair, Professor Adele Jinadu and CDD Director, Idayat Hassan noted that while Nigerians embrace multiple identities, the election campaign and the political conversation has tended to sharpen divisions along these lines.

Subsequently, CDD pointed at insecurity as another critical issue, which could impact the conduct and outcome adding that all six geopolitical zones of the country are confronted by insecurity, which has led to the deployment of the Nigerian military across the federation.

In the months leading up to general elections in Nigeria, violent events involving political parties increase as contestation intensifies within and between groups vying for power, despite all parties signing the National Peace Accord.

“Northern states are engulfed in long-standing violence with extremist jihadist groups, criminal bandit gangs, and other non-stated armed groups who are engaged in deadly attacks against local communities. In the south, civil unrest continues against the backdrop of ongoing violence between farmers and herders and secessionist agitators. The situation is further complicated by fuel and currency scarcity which is increasing economic hardships on the more than 130 million Nigerians classified as multi-dimensionally poor.”

Consequently, CDD identified the role of institutions as being crucial to conduct of credible and transparent elections. These include INEC, and the security agencies who are faced with a herculean challenge to manage logistics and secure the electoral terrain.