Ken Ukaoha, President, National Association of Nigerian Traders (NANTs) says the country will lose more than N140 billion due to the postponement of the general elections.
Ukaoha said in Abuja on Saturday that the postponement would affect the trading sector adversely.
It would be recalled that Mahmood Yakubu, Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), had about 2.45am. on Saturday, announced the postponement of the elections only a few hours before the commencement of the polls.
The Presidential and National Assembly elections have been rescheduled for February 23rd while the Gubernatorial and State Assemblies elections will come up on March 9th as against February 16th and March 2nd respectively.
Ukaoha noted that the postponement would affect the economy adversely in terms of money that the government, political parties and ordinary Nigerians had already expended on logistics and otherwise.
Ukaoha described the elections postponement as appalling and unfortunate; it could make the nation become a laughing stock among the comity of nations. He noted that many traders did not open their shops due to the election.
“I am not talking of the manufacturing sector, transporters and the farmers; even workers were asked not to go to work.
“We need to be adequately prepared for elections.
“The loss is monumental, if you look at the economic consequences, essentially if you look at the trade, Nigeria depends so much on daily turning of fund through distribution and redistribution of goods and commodity.
“I am telling you that with this calculation I have just done here, we are losing nothing less than N140 billion, because we got this information so late.
“If you go around now you will see that the shops are close, so we are losing chunk of money just for this incident.
“We are not talking about the manufacturers and the industrialists because they have all sent their workers away to go and perform their civic duty.
“Farmers did not go to their farms because they want to exercise their franchise. If you do the computation your guess is as good as mine in terms of what the nation is losing, we should learn.
“The truth is that it appeared that the nation has refused to get things right, the implication is that if care is not taken the country will become a laughing stock in the minds of comity of nations.
“You may remember that Ghana had elections that had no encumbrances, no hitches attached hereto, Cote d’ Ivoire had, Liberia just had; these are countries that should be learning from us.
“If you take a look at what happened in 2015 and what we ran into now I think we should be matured and man enough to learn because this thing will continue to follow us in every election,” he said.
He expressed concern about the resources that would be wasted on the conduct of the elections due to the postponement.
“Whether we like it or not we are going to spend more money in the conduct of the elections, we have lost quite a lot.
“Finally and more monumental is that if you look at the economic consequences, essentially if you look at the trade, Nigeria depends so much on daily turning over of funds through distribution and redistribution of goods and commodity,” Ukaoha noted.
According to him, the government would have spent the money to address issues such as infrastructure, health, education and payment of workers’ salaries.
However, Ukaoha advised traders and farmers to ensure that they vote on Saturday as the future of the country depends on them as well as others.
In a related development, Tony Ejinkeonye, Vice President National Association of Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, (NACCIMA), described the development as unfortunate.
Ejinkeonye who is the Director, Business Development for Africa, Esilknet Africa Network Limited, explained that the country would lose billions of naira to the postponement of election
“It’s quite unfortunate that the election was postponed. Economically, billions of naira have been lost and will be lost in the coming weeks. Industries, businesses including airlines were affected by the movement restriction.
“We expect also the same thing happening in the coming weeks. Most important effect is the perception of the international financial community.
“Situations like this will create panic with massive withdrawal and stoppage of funds inflow to Nigeria. I dread the effects in the stock market on Monday,” he stressed.
Ejinkeonye who observed that it would be difficult to determine how much, however argued that the real cost is the loss of investors’ confidence.
He however advised Nigerians not to be discouraged but should still go and exercise their franchise come next Saturday.
