Just three weeks before Nigeria’s presidential election, cash and fuel shortages have fueled public anger and tension during the campaign for the country’s highest office.
The candidates have blamed the accusations of inadequacy with the ruling party hoping to even suggest that their opponents have staged the crisis to damage their election chances.
Campaign rhetoric has heated up during the February 25 election to decide the successor to President Muhammadu Buhari, the former army chief who stepped down after two terms in office.
Nigerian election candidates
The election looks close with three main candidates: Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Atiku Abubakar and Labor Party candidate Peter Obi.
Already grappling with widespread insecurity and the economic fallout from the war in Ukraine, Nigerians are also dealing with fuel shortages and limited access to cash due to the program to exchange old bank notes for new ones.
Across the country, people are sleeping in their cars outside gas stations to fill up their tanks as crowds jostle outside ATM machines and banks to try to access scarce cash supplies.
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Earlier this week, riots broke out in the northern city of Kano, with angry mobs protesting Buhari’s visit and blaming the ruling APC for the currency difficulties.
Tinubu, a former governor of Lagos, has attacked his opponents for deliberately creating a crisis to undermine his own election.
“They are trying to cause trouble and sabotage us,” Tinubu told supporters at a rally in Abeokuta last week. “Whether there is fuel or not … we will vote and win.”
But the powerful APC governor for Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, fueled tensions this week by claiming “saboteurs” at the presidential villa were trying to destroy Tinubu.
“We are convinced there are some elements in Villa who want APC to lose the election,” El-Rufai told Arise News.
“There appears to be very strong evidence of a conspiracy to sway voters against the APC.”
– ‘Godfather of Lagos’ –
Known as the “Godfather of Lagos” due to his political influence, Tinubu was instrumental in electing Buhari in 2015 and was re-elected in 2019.
But he has rattled the APC ranks with the statement “It’s my turn” for the presidency.
Minister of Information Lai Mohammed told newsmen that he did not know of anyone in the presidency working against Tinubu and said Buhari only wanted a free, fair and credible contest.
But PDP candidate Abubakar’s campaign was quick to point out that Tinubu is trying to get rid of Buhari’s eight-year government record.
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“Tinubu must understand that Nigerians can see through his antics and beguilements and that diversionary theater fueled by new naira notes cannot sway Nigerians at this moment,” PDP spokesperson Kola Ologbondiyan said in a statement on Twitter.
Since the emergence of military rule in 1999, Nigerian elections have often been marred by logistical problems, violence and claims of fraud.
The Independent National Electoral Commission or INEC this week said fuel shortages may hamper the organization of the election.
The central bank on Thursday authorized banks to start circulating new naira currency notes to ease cash shortages.
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First elected in 2015, Buhari promised to end the long war against jihadists in the northeast.
But even though the Islamic militants have been pushed out of the territory they controlled, the fighting continues in the northeast. More than two million people have been displaced.
Insecurity has also spread. Criminal militias in the northwestern and central regions often carry out mass kidnappings and robberies in villages.