Nigeria Elections: You'll buy petrol for less and fly at a reduced cost this season

The federal government, petrol marketers and, wait for it…the airlines…are all falling over themselves to make it easier for you to go out there and vote for your preferred candidates this election season.

First, the federal government has declared Friday, February 22, a work free day “to enable citizens return to their polling units for the rescheduled presidential and national assembly elections”.

On Wednesday, Information Minister, Lai Mohammed announced that fuel suppliers have slashed the price of petrol to encourage people who intend to travel to vote.

According to Mohammed, the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), has cut the cost of petrol at the pumps to N140 per liter from N145 per liter.

But this discount has an expiry date. Duh!

Information Minister, Lai Mohammed, speaking at the launch of the campaign to rally support for the military. (Presidency) Pulse Nigeria

According to Mohammed, IPMAN which has a membership of about 50,000 and “(which) controls 80 per cent of the petroleum sector distribution, has agreed to cushion the effect of the postponement by reducing the pump price of petrol from N145 to 140 from February 21 to 25th”.

So, yeah, on Feb 26, everyone will go back to purchasing petrol at the old rate.

You can travel for less too

The National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), which has about 2 million members and operates motor parks in all the 774 local government areas of Nigeria, has offered to provide discount to travelers who use their motor parks for the period of the elections.

Two airlines—Aero and Arik—will be slashing fares for the period of the vote.

Arik aircraft ready for take-off (Arik Air) ece-auto-gen

Aero will be offering a 50 per cent discount to all travelers who present their Permanent Voters Card (PVC), at point of purchase.

Arik has slashed the price of its tickets to N16,000 to all destinations across the country; from February 18 to March 11, 2019.

According to Mohammed, all of these measures have been put in place to "encourage voters who might have been disenfranchised by the postponement.”

Postponing elections on election morning

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) rescheduled presidential and national assembly elections from Feb 16 to Feb 23 and the governorship and house of assembly elections from March 2 to March 9--owing to logistic setbacks.

Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the PDP is President Muhammadu Buhari’s major challenger for the topmost job in oil rich Nigeria.

84 million Nigerians, 51 percent of whom are young people aged 18-35, registered to vote in their country’s general elections.