Vanguard
By Gabriel Ewepu
ABUJA-THE Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, CISLAC, Wednesday, queried the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, ‘Who can legally afford APC’s N100 million presidential forms of Nomination and Expression of Interest?
CISLAC expressed dismay over fees placed on the various forms of Nomination and Interest, pointing that this will give way to corrupt politicians and money-bags to hijack the electoral process as they will dictate the tune for those they will sponsor to purchase the forms at exorbitant amounts as announced by the party.
The Executive Director of CISLAC and Chairman Transition Monitoring Group, TMG, Auwal Ibrahim Rafsanjani, in a statement issued and made available to Vanguard, described the fees as shameful.
According to Rafsanjani, “It was unbelievable for a ruling party that the President belongs to, has endorsed the expression of interest and nomination forms for its presidential ticket at N100m.
“This is especially at a time when many have expressed dissatisfaction with the level of youth participation in partisan politics and called for deliberate measures to create the enabling environment for wider inclusion and active participation of women and youth in politics and governance of the country.
“A key question to ask is, “Who can legally afford N100 million for a Presidential ambition?” This despicable decision by the APC begs this question as it only serves within the following contexts to: Marginalize youths, women and average citizens; Despite claims of a 50% reduction in nomination and expression of interest fees, the new Presidential nomination fees at (from N100 million to N50 million) remains clearly higher than the 2019 Presidential aspirant fee which was N45 million (N40 million for nomination form and N5 million for expression of interest form).
“This will apparently exclude the youth, women and average Nigerians who have clamoured to improve opportunities to exercise their rights to declare their interests and contest in the elections.
“The current total fee is N5 million higher than it was 3 years ago when inflation was significantly lower and the common man had a better spending power.
“It has been well established that money politics has served the purposes of consolidating elite rule as well as the political exclusion of the less financially stable and marginalized groups.
