#NigeriaDecides: Nigeria Blocks Thousands of Bank Accounts in Bid to Stop Vote Buying
The 2019 general elections will be cheapest election in Nigeria since independence with news media’s confirmation that thousands of corporate bank accounts across all banks in Nigeria have been blocked from withdrawals by authorities in a bid to stamp out the influence of cash in elections.
Nigeria’s general elections starts tomorrow (Saturday) with the presidential and national assembly elections. Incumbent President, Muhammadu Buhari and former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar are the two front-runners even though the field has over 80 other contestants. Analysts are split on the winner, but media men are strongly projecting that Buhari will emerge in the first ballot with a margin of around 2m votes.
Multiple sources, who confirmed the temporary account freeze order which is being coordinated by the FIRS, EFCC and the NFIU, said banks have been unable to meet large cash demands by customers all week because of the strategy. The directive was given last week. “The strategy has been very effective so far. This is clearly going to be the cheapest election in the history of Nigeria,” one of the sources, a top banker in one of the commercial banks, said.
The influence of cash (vote buying) in local elections came to the burner in the last election circle and stakeholders have been deliberating on how to tackle the menace before it completely destroys the electoral system.
Nigerian politicians and vested interests use banks to launder cash that is then withdrawn a few days to the election and subsequently used to buy votes from mostly poor voters. In some cases, the voter sells his/her card for a meager N10, 000 (about $30).
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