Vote buying and selling conversation.

DEAN Initiative had the second episode of our vote buying conversation series where we discussed the implications of CBN cashless policy on vote buying and selling in the forthcoming general elections.
Responding to the question of what he foresees with the cashless policy and how it affects the genral election Mr Emmanuel Njoku said he supports Mr president decision as he believes the policy will tackle the menace of vote buying and selling and bring some sanity to the country’s electoral process,
He added that as an experienced election observer, the eve of the election is when cash is mobilized and used for some wrong things including buying of drugs, alcohol, bullets and votes buying.
But still the policy has some adverse effect, due to the scarcity of cash people who need to travel to to other locations to vote might not be able to and this will greatly affect voters turnout. Also, the scarcity of cash is so severe that people, especially in the rural area might be selling their votes for as low as 1,000 naira or less.

Mrs Nike of Dataphyte butressed that the media has a responsibility to get above the noise especially with giving adequate information on the intents of the policy especially to those in the rural areas as they rarely have access to news and information.

Mr Bode affirmed that the role of young people in the management of vote buying and selling cannot be overly emphasized as he strongly believes that young Nigerians are very much interested and actively participating in the elections.

Lastly Mr Emmanuel stated that the National Orientation Agency NOA has a responsibility to educate Nigerians on the cashless policy and recommended that the NBC should give orders to all broadcasting channels especially the radio for adequate sensitization using jingles as it would help educate Nigerians.

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