Election taking place at time Nigeria faces numerous challenges – CHRICED laments

The Resource Centre for Human Rights & Civic Education (CHRICED) has lamented that the forthcoming elections will take place at a time when the country is facing numerous challenges.

It said the challenges range from insecurity to the turmoil in the economy and to the lack of jobs for those willing and ready to work, hence there are more than enough reasons for all registered Nigerians to come out in good numbers to exercise their democratic rights.

Ibrahim Zikirullahi, the executive director, CHRICED made the observation at a press conference on the ‘state of the nation’ in Abuja on Thursday.

Zikirullahi condemned the sufferings Nigerians have been subjected to in a bid to get cash and Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) in the last few weeks.

He said the government, through the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, has set out on a mission to inflict more misery and hardship on the Nigerian people.

“Disturbing pictures of Nigerians in a life and death struggle to obtain the new Naira notes from banks and Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) have become commonplace across the country. While ordinary people do not have access to the new banknotes, provocative videos of partygoers spraying bundles of the new notes have surfaced on social media.

“Until now, the CBN and relevant law enforcement agencies have deemed it unnecessary to investigate how such large amounts of the new currency shown in those social media videos ended up in the hands of those individuals who were using them to show off, while most citizens endured long queues just to get some cash.

“CHRICED finds it untenable that while the CBN keeps insisting that it has supplied the redesigned currency to banks, the new notes have hardly ever been available in banks’ ATMs, resulting in serious currency scarcity. The situation has deteriorated to the point where unscrupulous PoS operators now charge between 20 and 30 percent of any amount their customers wish to withdraw as a fee for providing the cash.

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“CHRICED strongly condemns the suffering and agony inflicted on millions of ordinary Nigerians in recent weeks. These travails are the outcomes of the CBN’s sloppy implementation of the currency redesign and swap policy (CBN). In a previous intervention, CHRICED warned that if the apex bank does not handle this policy carefully, it will cause unnecessary hardship, particularly in rural areas. CHRICED prediction has proven to be correct,” Zikirullahi said.

He expressed dismay over the very disturbing video evidence of cases wherein Nigerians wanting to collect their PVCs were asked to part with specific sums of money to be able to get their PVCs.

“CHRICED unequivocally condemns these manifestations of petty corruption in the PVC collection process as documented in Enugu and Nasarawa States. While these may be isolated cases of acts of corruption by a few unscrupulous officials, it is important for the Commission to speedily cause an investigation of these infractions and ensure law enforcement bring the perpetrators to justice.

“Finally, CHRICED calls on INEC to engage in more confidence building with respect to the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) device, which came under the spotlight at the recent Governorship Election Petition Tribunal judgement for the Osun State gubernatorial election conducted in 2022.

“Although the case is likely to go through the judicial system all the way to the Supreme Court, the Tribunal’s verdict on overvoting raises a number of fundamental questions about how the INEC Presiding and Collation Officers oversaw the process.

“Some critical questions must be addressed: was there collusion by INEC officials in the polling units, which recorded overvoting as indicated by the Tribunal? If that is the case, what steps will the Commission take to avoid a repeat, especially with the 2023 general elections approaching? INEC must reflect on and take critical steps to address these issues in order to build trust and ensure free, fair, and credible general elections in 2023.”