The election is coming Feb 25th, 2023.

Unfortunately this country that 10-20 years ago was a leader of world emerging economies is being crippled by somewhat incoherent political directions with demonstrations all kinds of creativity during the election lead up, and which directly affect millions of Nigerians in the country of almost 300 million.

The most impactful pre election change was a decision to replace certain bank notes with a new currency. The Central Bank failed to adequately prepare. The result is a cash shortage with the most visible symptom of people sleeping overnight outside ABM’s in hope they can get cash. The Central Bank first removed the value of the old bank notes which drove the chaos higher.

I gather they have now put the conversion on hold but this leaves those who successfully converted to the new currency in limbo, and I will not speculate further on status.

Many are now worried that the election results my not hold now. The cash situation, plus missing passports along with a win at all costs desire amongst the contenders result in a serious condition for the country that could bring anything from no change to extreme results such as election denial of results.

Nigeria Premium Times

It is not the election week that Nigerians anticipated or that anyone foresaw. As the clock counts down to 25 February, normal pre-poll excitement about who may win has been overtaken by a not unreasonable fear, especially among Nigerians who were adults before the last of the military despots were ushered out in 1999, that the election may not even hold

Other random local headlines

• Police officer, six suspected IPOB members killed in fresh attack on police facility. This is the latest in the string of attacks on police facilities in South-east Nigeria.
• Residents sleep at ATM points across northern Nigeria as cash scarcity persists
• The former Vice President said he would ensure good governance and a peaceful country if elected
• That applies to the political parties and other public and private institutions with a role to play in the elections. There are 176,846 polling units across the country. If a party deploys an agent to each of these units and pays each of the agents N10,000, that will be about N1.76 billion of legitimate election expenditure. Given the current cash crunch, the agents will prefer at least part of the allowance in cash.
• Many voters will also need cash if they want to travel for the elections and to reach the polling units on election days. Unless the situation improves dramatically before Saturday, the stage may have been set for low voter turnout, which may affect the outcomes of many of the polls and the legitimacy of the winners.