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The streets of Lagos, the country's largest shopping center with over 20 million inhabitants, were empty after the disappointment and anger sparked by the last-minute decision.
Staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) unload the vans of a van in front of their local office in Port Harcourt on February 16, 2019 after the postponement of the presidential and legislative elections in Nigeria. Picture: AFP.
LAGOS – Nigerians counted Sunday the cost of postponing presidential elections at the last minute. According to forecasts, this delay could cost the country billions of dollars.
The streets of Lagos, the country's largest shopping center with over 20 million inhabitants, were empty after the disappointment and anger sparked by the last-minute decision.
Some 84 million people registered to vote for a new president and parliament on Saturday until the Independent National Electoral Commission announced a deadline of one week.
The two main candidates – President Muhammadu Buhari and Atiku Abubakar – called for calm, while INEC prepared to solve the logistical problems that hindered their preparations.
Despite billions of dollars in oil revenue, most Nigerians live in poverty and traveling to their home towns and villages to vote is a financial sacrifice for many.
Most companies closed on Friday to allow employees to leave before any movement restrictions were imposed throughout Saturday. Airports and land borders have also been closed.
FINANCIAL HIT
The general director of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Muda Yusuf, has estimated about $ 1.5 billion in financial losses resulting from the delay in the elections.
"Postponement of the election has a huge cost to the economy," he said in the Sunday Vanguard newspaper.
"The economy was in partial halt the day before (Friday) and in full stop Saturday for the elections". he added.
Economist Bismark Rewane, however, said the biggest cost was related to Nigeria's reputation.
"Investor confidence will be eroded," he said.
In the long run, considering the indirect costs, the delay could cost the equivalent of 2.0 to 2.5% of gross domestic product.
In monetary terms, he estimated the potential cost of the delay at "about $ 9 to $ 10 billion".
Social media has been used in the meantime to organize collections for street vendors who bought perishable items to sell to voters who often waited in long lines.
The amount finally raised should not make much difference to tens of millions of people living on less than $ 1.90 a day.
INEC announced the delay on Saturday at 2:45 am, just over five hours before the opening of some 120,000 polling stations in the country.
Yakubu said a combination of factors, including last-minute court challenges over applications, bad weather and sabotage, had hindered the distribution of election materials.
Urns and other items, including voter ID cards, were destroyed in three fires in three separate INEC offices in central and southeastern states. during the last two weeks.
He explained that the organization of elections in the most populous nation of Africa, with some 190 million inhabitants, was a "large-scale enterprise" and that "operational challenges "were expected.
The electoral body took "full responsibility", he said, but denied any political interference.
PREVIOUS DELAYS
This election is the sixth in 20 years that Nigeria has returned to a civilian regime after decades of military rule.
But the delay is also not a first: in 2011, the date of the general elections had been postponed twice, especially after the start of the vote.
Yakubu's predecessor to the INEC presidency had made the "emergency" decision after it appeared that many voting units did not have election materials.
The violence that erupted after Goodluck Jonathan's election of the Democratic People's Party (PDP) killed more than 1,000 people across the country.
In 2015, six weeks had been announced one week before the scheduled vote. INEC said it acted on military advice because of the fight against Boko Haram in the northeast.
A leading Nigerian civil society group, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, on Sunday accused successive governments of repeated delays in elections.
He said that there was a "growing tendency to postpone elections … over the years" and that he was considering suing officials.
Yakubu was called online to resign his position as president of INEC, but SERAP deputy director, Kolawole Oluwadare, said it was "an attempt" flagrantly on the part of politicians to make the electoral commission a scapegoat ", rather than the root causes.
In 2011, Femi Falana, a prominent human rights lawyer, said about this year's delay: "It's frustrating and disappointing.It's evidence of the collapse. state institutions. "
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