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2023: Naira To Dollar Exchange Rate As Reason APC Shouldn’t Adopt Consensus

Published

3 years ago

May 23, 2022.

Sylvester Ugwuanyi

Politicians' Mob Up Of Dollars For 2023 Ambition Have Worsened The Exchange Rate Of Naira To The Dollar

Politicians’ Mob Up Of Dollars For 2023 Ambition Have Worsened The Exchange Rate Of Naira To The Dollar
With Consensus Primary, It’s Feared Hoarded Dollars Won’t Be Plowed Back To The Economy

EDITOR’S PICK:

EKO HOT BLOG observed that reports of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) adopting the consensus method for selecting the standard-bearer of the party gained traction over the weekend, with President Muhammadu Buhari purportedly planning a meeting with the aspirants this week for pruning down the number through persuasion.

Like National Chairmanship Contest Like Presidential Primary

Checks revealed that 23 presidential hopefuls bought the N100million nomination and expression of interest forms of the party and are in the race for the APC ticket. This is an unwieldy number for the ruling party to allow into the race for its presidential ticket. It will be recalled that there was a lesser number of seven aspirants for the national chairmanship position of the APC. This was still considered to be a crowd, as a result of which President Buhari met with the aspirants and goaded them to step down for Sen. Abdullahi Adamu, in a consensus arrangement struck barely three days to the March 26th national convention of APC.

The affected chairmanship aspirants who Buhari met with at the Presidential Villa included Sen. George Akume, Sen. Tanko Al-Makura, Sen. Sani Musa, Mohammed Saidu-Estu, Abdulaziz Yari and Ali Modu, who were joined at the meeting by the anointed one, Sen. Abdullahi Adamu. Governors were also carried along as they were made to support Adamu as the consensus candidate so that the party doesn’t get weakened by all seven of them going into the national championship race.

APC’s Form 18 Prepared The Ground For Consensus Primary

Feelers are that the foregoing approach will be canvassed in the APC presidential primary election slated for the 29th and 30th of this month. The Electoral Act 2022 allows political parties to elect their candidates through any of the direct, indirect and consensus modes of primaries. The catch however in the consensus option is that any aspirant who agrees to step down must do so in writing lest the consensus becomes invalid. APC already sidestepped this snag by attaching Form 18 ‘Letter of Withdrawal’ to the Expression of Interest and Nomination forms sold to aspirants to fill and submit along with other forms and their credentials.

This withdrawal letter to be addressed to the National Chairman of the party, Senator Abdulahi Adamu, must also be signed before a Commissioner of Oath/Public Notary before submission. The form reads: “I hereby voluntarily withdraw my candidacy from the contest. My withdrawal is in the best interest of our great party, the All Progressives Congress.”

Politicians Mop Up Of Dollars Worsens Exchange Rate

Meanwhile, it has now emerged that the economy of Nigerians will be affected if the party goes ahead with the consensus model of primary in their grand event. This will further weaken the naira which last week was already exchanging for over N600 to the dollar. Pundits are of the view that letting all 28 aspirants vie for the ticket in an indirect or direct primary will lead to a dollar bazaar at the Eagle Square venue of the primary.

This is because the presidential aspirants, who could cough out N100million for the touching line without batting an eyelid, will seek to outspend one another in dollars. Letting all the aspirants contest in the primary will force them to distribute the dollars they’ve been amassing all this while for the purpose. When the foreign exchange reaches the 7,800 delegates expected at the convention, this will lead to a dollar gloat that will strengthen the naira.

A Bureau De Change (BDC) operator, Abubakar Mohammed, recently told Bloomberg that politicians stocking up dollars ahead of political parties’ primary elections have driven the naira to a new low of N600 to a dollar on the parallel market. He added that politicians, who are competing for support from delegates in the party primaries, are creating massive demand for dollars in cash, thereby raising the price of the dollar.

Mohammed’s claim was corroborated by a PDP presidential aspirant, Peter Obi, who, in a television interview, said, “the politicians have enough dollars to share, and these people are those who have no legitimate means of earning this dollar”. One of the leading aspirants in the APC recently made headlines for sharing between $300 to $400 to party delegates in two states in the North East geopolitical zone.

Daily Trust had reported the BDC operators as revealing that agents of politicians seeking elective offices have been traversing the country to buy dollars, which sources said is much easier to use “to reach out to delegates” and other critical stakeholders instead of carrying big bags. Since the politicians have been accumulating these dollars, the naira will be greatly shortchanged if they don’t get a chance to spend it.

Indirect Rather Than Consensus Primary Favours The Naira

But if the consensus deal is struck, particularly in the ruling APC which has the most number of aspirants, those stepping down may just save their dollars for future use rather than return same to the country’s financial system. Therefore, to grant a badly needed reprieve to the naira, all aspirants must be allowed to contest the primaries. That way, delegates will immediately rush BDC operators for the naira equivalent of their dollars, and in the process strengthen the value of the local currency.

FURTHER READING:

This piece is in no way encouraging delegate inducement, it only suggests a way out of the diminishing value of the national currency due to the amassing of forex by politicians. Economists believe that the concomitant scarcity of dollars leads to an increase in its price, which in turn drives inflation in the country. However, delegates in the various parties must be responsible enough to give Nigerians credible candidates to vote for during the general elections. It’s in their enlightened self-interest to do this.

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