Slow circulation of new naira notes may impact elections – Accord

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Slow circulation of new naira notes may impact elections – Accord

WITH 11 days to the 2023 general elections amid daunting challenges, Accord Party, Tuesday, expressed worry over slow circulation of new Naira notes and the negative impact it may have on conducting the general elections.

This was stated by the National Chairman of Accord Party, Lawal Nalado, during the party’s National Executive Committee, NEC, meeting held in Abuja, while making the party’s position known on the state of the nation.

Nalado said the party supports Central Bank of Nigeria’s policy on redesign of the Naira, but expressed concern over the slow circulation of the new Naira notes, which he called for intervention by CBN and the Federal Government in order to ameliorate the plight of Nigerians who are currently frustrated.

He said: “Even the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, is contemplating having successful elections without availability of fuel and money.

“So if there is no money it is going to affect distribution of materials to polling units and that is why INEC met with the CBN governor because I believe they have so much in place that gives them assurance that elections will be conducted.

“The only hitch they have today is non-availability of fuel and cash in the hands of the masses. What actually will solve the problem is to make cash available to the citizens, and if money is made available to the citizens that will ease a lot of things whether new or old currency.”

He also called on President Muhammadu Buhari to address the nation based on the suffering Nigerians are going through.

“The main issue now we are demanding is that the President should address the sufferings of Nigerians. The only way is to make cash available to all citizens and Accord is in support of that 100 per cent.

“Accord’s position is for CBN to direct the banks to pay people over the counter and not through ATMs as we all can see Nigerians suffering, and not to wait till people begin to behave otherwise.

“We want the new and old Naira notes to exist side by side and until the old ones naturally disappear, and by this it will help reduce the present hardship Nigerians are going through.”

Meanwhile, on the cancellation of 240 polling units by INEC, according to him (Nalado), the cancellation was on the heels of those polling units not having any voters for them, and added that it was a wise decision by INEC to deactivate them in order for criminal minded persons not to take advantage and use them to manipulate the elections.

“About the cancellation of some polling units we were at a stakeholder meeting with INEC yesterday (Monday) , and the INEC Chairman brought it to our notice, I mean all political parties, where we brought up the idea of increasing the polling units to ease the problems and congestion of polling stations during elections. So those overpopulated polling units were recommended for expansion that is why some new voting centres were created.

“But yesterday (Monday) INEC addressed us. They made us believe that some polling units that do not have voters are the ones that were canceled and those that have voters are existing and will continue to exist, and there are also new ones that are created which will go on with the elections.

“The cancellation is not anything to worry about because they were canceled because there were no voters there. The best way to protect democracy and voters is by making sure that these polling units are canceled so that there will be no place for people that have bad minds to go and create something”, he said.