Counting the cost, implication of the postponed election
There may not have been any significant incident of election violence on Saturday as Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC called off the exercise at the last minute, but there were still a different kind of casualties from the postponement of the election. The extent of damage done to many Nigerians by deciding to call off the election just a few hours to the polls cannot be quantified by merely stating the obvious.
Many people had plans that were disrupted and this has affected their initial readiness and enthusiasm for the election. Not only that, the canceled polls also caused economic loss and the implication to some people has been dire. Locked up shops, canceled business transactions, rescheduled weddings, and a lot of road transport companies that did not book any travels for the day of election because of the police directive that restricted vehicular movement nationwide.
There were people across the country as well who traveled to their various hometowns or initial place of residence where they had registered for their PVC as they are not allowed to participate in the election anywhere else. Some of them expected to take out the weekend and exercise their civic duty and be back to their businesses on Monday, but they never knew INEC had other plans.
Among those deeply affected by the postponement of the election were the National Youth Corp Members who were hired by INEC as ad-hoc staff. These young people were left out in the open and in terrible conditions as there were no provisions for their accommodation and welfare, and it seemed like they went through all the troubles for nothing.
Nigerians from all walks of life have been demanding answers from INEC, but the reason that the electoral body is giving for postponing the election is pedestrian at best. The INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu said that the election was delayed by a week because of the destruction of INEC materials in some parts of the country and other unforeseen logistical issues. There were only three reported fire incidents at just three states out of the 36 in Nigeria, so it goes beyond saying that this could not really be an overbearing reason for canceling the election.
The incident has further painted Nigeria in a bad light in the international community as election observers from the United Nations, USA, EU and other parts of the world had already landed in Nigeria and were expecting to monitor the election the following day. The time and resources that these countries spent and the logistics of sending these officials to Nigeria seems to have been wasted.
Out of frustration and disappointment, some voters have vowed not to put themselves through the stress of trying to vote again, while others have expressed a renewed determination to ensure that the present administration is voted out of power.
Although the election was equally postponed in 2015, but the notice was given six weeks prior to the election day. That action seems decent compared to this year’s postponement which came at the early hours of the morning on the election day. The impromptu postponement has compelled some people, especially the opposition party, PDP to call for the resignation of the INEC chairman, and no one can really blame them.
However, the Presidential and National Assembly elections that was fixed on February 16 has been rescheduled to February 23; whereas the Governorship, State House of Assembly and Local Government elections will now hold on March 9 instead of March 2.
Nigerians have been encouraged to put the past behind them and come out to vote in the new dates in order not to deliberately disenfranchise themselves.
