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Kaduna state residents, on Sunday, attributed the low turnout of voters in the ongoing general elections to the cash crunch occasioned by the new naira policy.
Some residents who spoke with journalists said they were anxious to travel to enable them to exercise their franchise.
They, however, added that they were constrained not to as they couldn’t get enough cash to travel.
Faisal Adamu, 28, a tricyclist, said he had been a regular voter since he reached voting age but lost interest in the ongoing polls.
He said agents of politicians who had met them earlier to solicit their votes before the election day collected their account numbers, but they were not credited even after the polls.
“These politicians are not trustworthy, and that was why I did not waste my time at the polling unit, because in previous years, they gave us cash, and we voted for their candidates.”
Also, Muhydeen Muhammad, an online journalist, said that from what he witnessed, President Buhari’s policy on the naira had a good impact on the election.
“Those who voted did so on the backdrop of the perceived competence and credibility of their candidates; rather than choices of others (vote buyers) which the availability of cash would have played a critical role to,” he said.
Similarly, Jemimah Nuhu, an agro-allied businesswoman, said she could not travel to her home town in Kachia LGA of Kaduna to cast her vote due to a cash shortage.
She, however, said previous elections at her polling units in Kachia were a stronghold for vote buying, where she also benefited from cash but voted for who she felt was a good candidate.
“If I had gone this year, I’m sure with the cash shortage, vote buyers would have been confused and disappointed because most times, vote buying helped them to achieve their target through the unpatriotic and gullible ones,” she said.
Another voter, Victor Azubuike, said the CBN cash policy disenfranchised several Nigerians who would have loved to travel to their preferred places to cast their votes.
He, however, said that the cash policy had ensured, to a very reasonable extent, that those who came out to vote did it without the influence of material things or cash.
While waiting to cast his vote on Saturday, the state governor, Nasir El-Rufai, expressed concerns over the low turnout of voters in the state.
“My only concern is low voter turnout; people are not coming out to vote. And I want to appeal to everyone to please come out and vote because you have once in four years opportunity to pick your leaders, and you should take it seriously,” Mr El-Rufai said.
(NAN)
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