Cash crunch and the need to vote

    Professor Lai Oso 

By Bernadette Idalu

A Professor of Mass Communication, Lagos State University, LASU, Professor Lai Oso has said that contrary to popular belief that the naira redesign policy and subsistent cash crunch might lead to voter apathy, the electorates handle power in their hands by hence the need to walk across to their polling units to cast their votes.

Speaking exclusively via phone, today, Thursday, February 23, 2023, former Dean of the School of communication stated his belief that no one was against the naira redesign policy, but, the problem had to do with the implementation of the policy. 

He observed that the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, did not do enough homework, they rushed into implementation without looking at the peculiarities of the Nigerian situation. They became very idealistic. 

Prof. Oso stated that though there is an existing conspiracy theory attached to the redesign  process, the CBN failed to put into consideration peculiarities such as having preliminary knowledge of how many petty traders and farmers can do online banking and making sure to know if they have the necessary infrastructure for online  banking. 

He pointed, "I know of people who have been trying for the past three days to use their automated teller machine, ATM, cards to transfer money and they have not been able to get through. I issued a cheque through my bank to pay some people and for the past one week I have not received an alert to show my account has been debited. Those who got the money also got no bank alert."

The problem of infrastructure for online banking is real, the internet facility is not too good. This problem has been there before the redesign policy. The CBN did not take Into consideration a lot of factors that could impede the process and rush to implement the policy.

Oso lamented that the present cash crunch being experienced in society could lead to voter apathy/low turn up of voters. "This is where my fear lies," he let out, but, these are challenges we must face as we move into a more democratic and political structure. 

He opined that the dysfunctional structure does not speak well of us as a country. Other countries are there looking at us, watching as the presidency floors the order of the Supreme Court while some state governors decided to do things in their own way. 

The unfolding political scenario, he said, shows the nature of the Nigerian political elite - there is no consensus in politics and among them, they don't agree on anything even on fundamental issues. This is a major characteristic of the Nigerian democratic system we have been building. It has dysfunctional policies, the democracy does not speak well of the country's political, economic, and social development.

He maintained that even if there were to be a low turn out of voters, this does not reflect the true situation on ground and the yearning of the Nigerian people. Absence has to do with anger and frustration relating to the naira redesign policy and a possible lack of physical cash to transport themselves to voting points or village where such are registered as voters, different from their area of residence.

Speaking on the way forward, Oso harped on the electoral law and fact that campaigns ended officially yesterday. He said except politicians did underground work to motivate people to go and vote, situation might remain unchanged. 

However, he agreed that this had its own danger too because people label this as vote buying. 

"It is a complex situation. Some people are already tired of everything they ask what is the need for them to even come out to vote. It is a cultural problem that will take us sometime to change. Part of the CBN problem was that they did not communicate the policy very well. That is still a problem. 

"There is no empathy from government from the presidency down. Governor Nasir El'rufai decides to give some palliative but the opposition party says he is trying to buy the votes of people. That is the kind of complexity we have in this country. Everything is turned into politics. I know of So many people in my office and where I live who went about begging people for money and food due to the present economic situation. So, if I have a political sympathy that helps out then it is labeled as trying to buy votes. It is really complex."