ANALYSIS: What prices of APC nomination forms say about Buhari’s anti-corruption campaign

The All Progressives Congress (APC) at a meeting of its National Executive Committee attended by President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja, on Wednesday, announced the fees for its expression of interest and nomination forms for the 2023 General Election.

The fees include N100 million for presidential aspirants, made up of N30 million for the expression of interest form and N70 million for the nomination form.

The party also fixed 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 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.

Nigerians, especially on social media, were swift in condemning the fees regime, describing them as exorbitant and exclusionary.

Ironically, President Buhari, who as an aspirant in 2014 had criticised the party for fixing an “exorbitant” fee of N27.5 million for the forms ahead of the 2015 general elections, was at the event where the party’s leaders fixed the fees.

“I felt heavily sorry for myself because I don’t want to go and ask somebody to pay for my nomination forms, because I always try to pay myself, at least for the nomination. N27 million is a big sum,” Mr Buhari had lamented when he picked the forms eight years ago.

However, four years later, the president appeared to have reconciled himself to his party’s apparent lust for money when it fixed N45 million for the same forms in 2018 when Mr Buhari ran for reelection.

Maintaining a trend

Compared with other political parties, the APC has always charged the highest fees for aspirants seeking party tickets for elections into public offices. For the 2023 election, the party has raised the fee for the presidential nomination forms by 263 per cent over what it charged in 2014. The current fee is the highest any political party in the country has ever asked an aspirant to pay for a chance to contest for its ticket.

While in 2014 the APC charged its governorship aspirants N6.5 million, it has now increased this by 669 per cent to N50 million.

In comparison, as the party in government in 2014, the PDP sold its expression of interest and nomination forms to presidential aspirants for N22 million, at a time the APC sold its own for N27.5 million.

In 2019, the PDP sold its EOI and nomination forms as follows: N12m for president, N6m for governor, N3.5m for Senate, N2.5m for House of Representatives and N600,000 for House of Assembly.

But the APC, which had become the ruling party elected on a “change” agenda, sold its own at a much higher rate of N45 million for president, N22.5 million for governor, N7 million for Senate, N3.85 million for House of Representatives and N850,000 for House of Assembly.

While the two major political parties have been accused of giving the impression through their pricing of nomination forms that elections to public offices in Nigeria are reserved for the highest bidders, the current ruling party has retained the lead in driving the prices higher.

But unlike Mr Buhari in 2014, today’s aspirants have not been complaining. The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, on Channels Television on Thursday said he had budgeted N50 million for the presidential nomination forms. But he refused to criticise the party for asking for twice that amount, saying his supporters would raise the balance.

Why are the costs so high?

The ruling party especially has fixed fees higher than what the aspirants would earn as their legitimate salaries and allowances throughout the four-year term in the offices they are gunning for.

In fact, no Nigerian public official earns close to N100 million as legitimate income in eight years.

The Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), which fixes the salaries and allowances of public officials, disclosed in a report published in 2020 that the Nigerian President earns N14 million annually while his vice gets N12 million, which is equivalent to £28,866 and £24,742 respectively.

A minister, like Mr Ngige, takes home roughly N7.8 million annually, so he would not earn what he will pay for his party’s nomination forms even if he is elected twice and serves for eight years.

It will also take Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who has also declared to run for president and is expected to pay N100 million to run in the APC primary, eight years and three months’ salaries and allowances to buy the party’s nomination forms for the position.

In the same scenario, it would take Governors Yahaya Bello of Kogi and Dave Umahi of Ebonyi, who each earns N7.8 million annually, 12 years and eight months to pay the same fees if they were to pay with their earnings.

Romancing corruption

The APC had feebly defended the high fees by saying they were fixed to separate the “men from the boys” and that they reflect the inflationary trend in the country.

However, some supporters of the party on social media have accused the leadership of the party of abandoning the party’s anti-corruption campaign by demanding so much from aspirants.

Adamu Shehu, a presidential aspirant under the party, said the exorbitant fees are tantamount to selling political offices to the highest bidders.

 

“If we don’t come together and use our collective power to save this country from strangulation of the moneybags, we are doing a great disservice to our generation and that of the future. We cannot continue to buy political offices in Nigeria, we need competent leaders come 2023,” Mr Shehu wrote in a Twitter post on Wednesday, shortly after the party broke the news.

His view was shared by Olalekan Glory, a member of the party in the South-west. Mr Glory told PREMIUM TIMES that the fees are unhealthy for the country’s politics.

In his reaction on Thursday, the executive director of YIAGA Africa, an NGO, Samson Itodo, warned that the fees will create negative competition.

Also, Austin Aigbe, a Senior Programme Officer at CDD, an organisation that promotes democracy, peace and human rights in Africa, described the fees as embarrassing.

He said the impacts of such fees will last beyond the 2023 elections on the country’s democracy, and the economy, which he noted is currently dependent on borrowings.

“You are going to see more people getting that form (APC presidential form). This is just a strategy to raise money for the party for campaign ahead of the election because they realise that votes will start to count and recognise that people are waiting for their votes to be bought. So, the more money the party has, the more votes they can buy,” Mr Aigbe told PREMIUM TIMES.

He said one or more aspirants may drop from the race due to the exorbitant fees for the apex seat but noted that the strong contenders will easily pay the fees, creating a situation he said is empowering people with questionable pasts.

“I know that some people will fall by the wayside but many of those people can conveniently buy those forms,” Mr Aigbe said.

The CDD official said the development will encourage corruption in government as whoever wins may have to recoup after the election.

Why APC cannot sell forms cheap – Political analyst

In his own reaction, a political commentator and analyst, Jide Ojo, also questioned the motive of the ruling party for fixing such “highly prohibitive and discriminatory” fees for the various offices.

However, Mr Ojo said, parties usually use primary elections to generate funds to run their activities and pay their workers.

 

“The party members are not paying fees as they should. Assuming that each of these members APC claims to have is paying N12,000 per annum as membership fee, look at how many billions they would generate from members. But they hardly pay because there is no incentive to do so. The party is too detached from its members,” he said

The APC claims to have over 40 million registered members.

“Look at the congresses they did, they did consensus. At what point did they involve party members to even have a say in the running of the party? Imagine that, for instance, you are doing a direct primary, and you say to all members, for you to be a part of this primary you have to be a financial member. Do you know how much the party would have if it decides to go direct?

“You continue to exclude members once the organs of the party meet and decide. I am sure that this nomination fee is not a product of consultation. So why would members pay fees if they are hardly involved in the running of the party?” Mr Ojo said.