By: Bola Badmus- Lagos
A group, Journalists for Democratic Rights (JODER), has described the cash swap embarked upon by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as capable of denying millions of Nigerians their democratic rights as the prevailing lack of access to funds they own, may in turn affect their movements to cast their votes.
JODER raised this concern on Tuesday in a statement signed by Adewale Adeoye, noting that millions of Nigerians work or reside outside the location of their polling units.
According the group, the tradition has been for one to travel to his or her state or community during each election season, pointing out that “the cash strapped situation will see many Nigerians unable to meet the aspirations of casting their votes.”
“In the past two weeks, Intra and inter-state movements of people have almost been stunted. Millions of Nigerians who register outside their work places or homes will not be able to perform the historic ritual of electoral migration during the National Elections which begins on Saturday,” Adeoye said.
“JODER has been active in election monitoring since 1999. The custom is that in states, millions of people register in their communities far from where they live or work. Some register in their communities located outside their state of residency.
They travel ahead of the election, either from one community to the other or from one state to the other. The CBN policy is set to drastically pull down this tradition,” he added.
Adeoye said random interviews during election monitoring indicated that millions of people traveled with the sole purpose of going home to vote in their communities but that the CBN cash policy would flounder the opportunity, adding that this was coming at a time that the transfer window of voters cards had been closed.
Speaking further, the pro-media rights group said the cash swap policy had also destroyed the prospect of strategic communication between political parties and voters as, according to it, access to mass communication instruments like pamphlets, radio jingles and community and rural meetings were annulled due to scarcity of cash and trade hitches occasioned by the CBN policy.
JODER, however, said it was difficult to assess the number of Nigerians that would be affected due to lack of cash to travel ahead of the election but estimates that the number should be in millions.
‘‘We estimate that millions of people will be disenfranchised by the CBN policy. This portrays the CBN as anti-democracy whereas a responsible Apex bank should realize the importance of representative government to economic growth and prosperity,” it said.
JODER, while further noting that the policy was unlikely not stop vote buying but would only enhance vote inducement to be paid in areas instead of instant payment associated with past elections, posited that there was lthe possibility of voters becoming more desperate for compensation as, according to it, this has been fueled by the impoverishing CBN policy.
“The policy has made many people poorer. They have money that they cannot access. The consequence is that with voters brought to the lowest economic ebb, they will be more desperate for compensation to address immediate needs, having been stripped of livelihood by the cash crunch,” the group said.
“The CBN has undermined democracy and sustainable development by its ill-thought and despotic approach to an otherwise progressive fiscal policy that ought to have been driven with over all public good from the beginning,” it added.
