Thirteen political parties in Nigeria have threatened to boycott the February 25 and March 11 general elections in Nigeria over the naira redesign policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
They will withdraw from the polls if the new deadline is extended, a counter to the demands of some APC governors lead by Nasir el-Rufai.
At a briefing by a coalition of chairmen of political parties on Monday, the 13 parties commended President Muhammadu Buhari on the redesign of the N200, N500 and N1,000 banknotes.
The parties said they won’t be interested in the elections if the new deadline of February 10, 2023 is shifted as demanded by some governors of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The 13 parties berated the Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara State Governments for seeking injunction at the Supreme Court to compel CBN to extend the deadline for currency swap.
The National Chairman of the Action Alliance, Kenneth Udeze, who briefed the press, said, “We hereby announce that at least 13 out of the 18 political parties in Nigeria will not be interested in the 2023 general elections and indeed we shall withdraw our participation from the electoral process if this currency policies are suspended or cancelled or if the deadline is further shifted.”
Recall that the CBN on October 26, 2022, announced its plan to redesign the three banknotes. The President subsequently unveiled the redesigned N200, N500, and N1,000 notes on November 23, 2022, while the apex bank fixed a January 31 deadline for the validity of the old notes. The apex bank would later extend the deadline from January 31 to February 10
