2019 Elections: Nigerians angry at INEC
Nigerians have blamed INEC for the postponement of Saturday’s polls calling for a probe of what some termed “national embarrassment”. They blamed the electoral body, INEC, for the shift, adding that INEC was never ready but gave the impression it was.
Shortly after the official announcement, Nigerians took to social media to vent their anger.
Donu Kogbara, a popular journalist and newspaper columnist wrote: “I am absolutely furious about the postponement of the elections for personal as well as ethical and professional reasons.
Is the Electoral Commission simply inept? Or is it in cahoots with a deeply unpopular government that fears defeat and is panicking and hoping that postponement will give it more time to rig?
Whatever the case may be, the date changes have cost me money and totally buggered up my schedule for the rest of Feb and first half of March.
In other words, the idiots who have messed Nigeria up don’t just screw up the bigger picture.
They also inflict countless “small” inconveniences and costs on regular citizens and businesses.
So many companies like airlines have cancelled their operations today because an election was supposed to happen today and because this is an essentially underdeveloped country in which almost everything has to come to a standstill around election time for security reasons.
Many banks were shut throughout yesterday in preparation. And let’s not forget the millions of people who have spent money going to their villages to vote.
Fortunately, almost every cloud has a silver lining and the good news is that postponing the election will hinder rather than help Buhari’s re-election aspirations because most Nigerians will not take kindly to yet another major disappointment from his administration”.
“The implications is enormous and it’s not good for individual and national economy because Nigerians have incurred extra cost for this shift”, says Bamidele Olanrewaju. He said airlines, banks, schools and small businesses across the country have lost billions of naira.
For Aliyu Mahmud, the cost of keeping the election monitors and observers by their various sponsors for extra one week is a deep hole in the pockets of these sponsors. “But besides, it takes away so much from our national image. Nobody will believe the eventual outcome of the election is it eventually holds”, he said.
The Independent National Electoral Commission had shifted Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly elections till next week 23 February barely 12 hours to the commencement of polls.
The governorship and house of assembly, FCT area council elections have also been shifted from 2 March to 9 March.
