The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has reacted angrily to an alleged move by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to postpone the upcoming presidential election by four weeks.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced that the Presidential and National Assembly elections will take place on Saturday, February 25, 2023, while the Governorship and State Assembly elections will take place on Saturday, March 11, 2023.
However, sources have told the Daily Independent that Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai is allegedly leading a plot to change the election date.
Remember that El-Rufai and two other APC governors, Yahaya Bello (Kogi) and Bello Matawalle (Zamfara), took the Federal Government to the Supreme Court over the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) naira redesign policy, which has President Muhammadu Buhari’s blessing.
According to the source, the APC and El-decision Rufai’s may be motivated by the nationwide protests and hardship caused by the naira and fuel scarcity, which has forced some candidates and parties to suspend their campaigns.
The APC is seeking a postponement of the election by four weeks, and the move is led by Governor Nasir El-Rufai. I think it has to do with the current chaos being experienced as a result of the naira and fuel scarcity, the source said.
Speaking on the alleged plot to postpone the election on Tuesday, Daniel Bwala, a spokesperson for the Atiku Abubakar Campaign Organisation, said anyone thinking of postponing the election does not wish well for Nigeria.
He stated that those pushing for the election to be rescheduled have realized that the naira redesign policy has put them in a bind, and they need to buy time to work their way out.
Bwala said:
All those who are thinking of postponing the election never mean well for Nigeria, and they never mean well for our democracy. They have noticed that the naira redesign policy has put them in a tight corner, and they needed to buy time to wriggle their way through. They went to court to challenge the policy, and the 10 days extension given by the president is coming to an end.
When they went to court, the ten days granted to them before the hearing of that case would have been over. With that, their matter will become academic. So, they are now seeking to extend the election by four weeks so that within this period, they will go and get ‘black market’ order from anywhere that will now say that their case is suspended.
Bwala wondered why the ruling APC is afraid of going to the polls now when other political parties, including INEC, said that they are ready for the exercise.
He claimed that it is only the APC that is fighting for an extension of the naira policy because, allegedly, they have stashed a large amount of the old naira notes they want to use for vote buying
The PDP chieftain said:
If you look at it from all points of view, you will notice that anybody that is seeking postponement of the election at this critical time of our national existence doesn’t mean well for our nation. INEC said they are ready for the election, the Federal Government said they are ready, political parties also said they are ready, but only one political party keeps saying they are not ready and are demanding for postponement.
That party happens to be the governing party that should be the first to be ready for the elections. Also, it is only that political party that is fighting for an extension of the naira policy because allegedly, they have stashed a large amount of the old naira notes and they want to use it for vote buying. However, this policy will not permit them to do that. They are suffering from anthropophobia which is the fear of the people and society. APC is afraid of voter backlash that the people are going to vote them out.