No one in Godgift Inemesit’s family of eight is confident that they will eat every day — except for her three kids, two of whom have malaria. She can’t pay for the medications they require or feed the rest of her family consistently.
Like most Nigerians, the family’s money is stranded in the bank. A transition to redesigned currency has put Africa’s biggest economy into turmoil just before a presidential election: There aren’t enough new banknotes in a nation dependent on cash.
For Inemesit, 28, the paucity of funds means even necessities like food and medication are being reduced for her husband, mother, kids ages 4 to 8 and two other relatives. One recent day, only the children had received bread and hot liquids.
“We normally eat three square meals, but now we eat once occasionally because there is no money to use,” Inemesit remarked at her residence in Banana village, an overcrowded shanty community hidden in the southern corner of the Nigerian capital of Abuja.
“We were informed to put the old money (notes) in the bank and that new one is coming,” she claimed. “But we don’t have the new money and no old currency. Everything is simply tough.”
Customers are queuing all day at banks and ATMs to withdraw barely enough money to last a day. Fights have broken out in bank halls, furious customers have assaulted personnel and demonstrators have set financial institutions on fire. Businesses unable carryout transactions have been forced to shut down, and others are illegally selling fresh currency notes at exorbitant prices.
As individuals grow increasingly needy of cash, the effect is expected to flow into the Feb. 25 presidential election. Nigerians expect to pick someone to address difficulties ranging from a security crisis that has killed hundreds in the last year to an ailing economy.
The lack of cash “has already produced tremendous hardship, which might render a higher proportion of voters susceptible to vote-buying and ratchet up election tensions even more,” warned the International Crisis Group, which works to avert violence.
Facing mounting pressure to find a solution, President Muhammadu Buhari, who has reached his term limitations and leaves office in May, said he asked the Central Bank of Nigeria to “deploy all lawful resources and legal means” to enable citizens “enjoy simple access to cash withdrawal.”
“I am genuinely sorry and empathize with you all over these unforeseen outcomes,” he stated, while still supporting the modifications.
Experts blame policymakers for a “rushed” launch of the new naira notes. Central bank chairman Godwin Emefiele said that certain government officials are “buying the new notes and hoarding them for whatever purposes.”
The central bank has stated the revised currency will help combat money laundering before the election, turn the West African country into a cashless economy and battle inflation of over 21%, a 17-year high.
Inemesit said she — like many others — had begun losing interest in the election, dimming prospects of higher voter engagement following years of continuous reduction in turnout.
She voted in 2019 when just 34% of registered voters cast their ticket for president. But as this year’s election creeps near, her vote and expectations for a better nation have been destroyed.
“With what we are facing today, I don’t have the objective of voting again. When you don’t have the stamina to get to where they are voting, how will you be able to vote?” she added.
With her 1.7 million Naira in the bank, “you have the money, but you cannot see it.”
The family generates their money from selling items like luggage and backpacks have plummeted substantially as Nigerians with little cash on hand are choosing food above other necessities.
“People would not abandon feeding their family to come and purchase bags,” she claimed.
The situation has left Inemesit too fatigued and upset to think about the impending presidential elections.
“The government failed us pretty well. They disappointed us,” she complained, holding her 4-year-old who was coughing persistently. “Things are challenging and everything has been raising prices.”
The painful thing about her story is that in the country at the moment; there are over millions of people that have found themselves in this dilemma. The major question that is on the lips of almost every Nigerian is “For how long will we continue to suffer like this?”
