The exorbitant fees imposed on aspirants by the leading political parties, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), for nomination forms and expression of interest, will definitely exclude some Nigerians from vying for elective posts in the 2023 elections. Critics of the excessive nomination fees are of the view that the development is akin to monetisation of the nation’s politics and democracy.
While the APC has pegged its nomination and expression of interest forms for presidential aspirants at N100 million, the PDP charged its presidential aspirants N40million. The fees by the APC for other offices are as follows: N50 million for governorship aspirants; N20 million and N10 million for Senatorial and House of Representatives aspirants respectively; and N2 million for State House of Assembly aspirants. However, aspirants under 40 years in APC will get a 50 per cent discount on the fees while women and persons living with disabilities will pay only for the expression of interest forms.
Similarly, PDP charges for other offices are: Governorship, N21 million; Senate, N3.5 million; House of Representatives, N2.5million; and State House of Assembly, N1.5million. Following the condemnations that greeted the exorbitant fees charged for party forms, the National Chairman of the APC, Abdullahi Adamu, opined that his party decided to peg its presidential nomination form at N100 million because of the importance of the office of the Nigerian president.
But Nigerians are not in any way convinced by Adamu’s feeble defence. For instance, human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, has faulted the N100million presidential nomination fee by the APC, describing it as immoral in the face of the country’s minimum wage of N30,000, which even some states are not paying. Also, the former Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi, has argued that in a country like Nigeria with a high rate of poverty, it is out of place to fix a contest form at N100 million for the presidential ticket of a political party.
We condemn the high cost of nomination fees by the two leading political parties. It is one of the aberrations of our present democratic experiment. The cost, which comes on the heels of the Not-Too-Young-To-Run Bill recently signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari and the clamour for the youths to be involved in the electoral system, is unnecessary. The high nomination fees will promote political exclusion instead of inclusion. Apart from being insensitive, the high nomination fees will shut out many Nigerian youths from aspiring for the nation’s leadership. It will be tragic, if youths who are said to be the leaders of tomorrow, are subtly excluded from the nation’s leadership via exorbitant party fees. Democracy, which thrives well through inclusive politics, should not go for the highest bidder. Nomination forms ought not to be used to exclude certain aspirants from the electoral contest. The high fee regime will shut poor Nigerians out of the system. There is no way the quest to reposition the country and encourage the best to emerge can materialise when brighter minds, who do not have the wherewithal, are schemed out of the contest through outrageous fees.
The exorbitant party fees will apparently kill the country’s democracy. The high fees will promote corruption. Political leadership should not be an exclusive preserve of the rich, other poor Nigerians matter too. In the face of rising poverty and misery among Nigerians, it is not late for the political parties to drastically reduce the party fees to affordable rates as obtains in other advanced democracies. Our democracy should not be defined by money.
We urge all political parties to quickly reduce their nomination fees. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) can wade into the issue by calling the parties to order. The electoral laws frown at excessive political spending. For example, Section 87(1) of the 2022 Electoral Act stipulates that “the Commission shall have power to place limitation on the amount of money or other assets which an individual can contribute to a political party or candidate and to demand such information on the amount donated and source of the funds.” Section 88(8) states that “no individual or other entity shall donate to a candidate more than N50,000,000.
The high nomination fees charged by some of the political parties are not in tandem with the provisions of the Electoral Act. Therefore, efforts should be made to prevent moneybags from hijacking our nascent democracy through exorbitant nomination fees. Let the parties look for other tolerable means of raising funds.