The Naira Re-Design policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN has been said to have aided vote buying rather than curbing it.
That was the submission of Dr Sam Ogwuche, Director, YIAGA Africa Legislative Engagement while speaking as a guest on Arise TV’s Morning Show this Friday morning.
According to him, “ The Naira Re-Design policy of the Federal Government through the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, aided vote buying instead of curbing it.
“Due to scarcity of Naira arising from the policy, vote buying became facilitated. Those who ordinarily would not have been moved by N10,000 were now being bought over with as little as N2,000.
“From our findings, there are two kinds of vote buying. You have Prepaid and Postpaid vote buying. In prepaid, it is done on trust; you are given money ahead of the election and you are expected to vote as agreed. In postpaid, you snap your ballot paper and present for payment, after voting.
“Due to the Naira scarcity arising from the Naira Re-Design policy, some party agents even used POS to transfer money to voters”
