The Federal High Court in Abuja on Wednesday dismissed a suit challenging what it described as the exorbitant fees charged by political parties for their card-carrying members to vie for their tickets to run for public offices.
A human rights lawyer, Ejime Okolie, filed the suit last year ahead of the upcoming 2027 electioneering, suing the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and 19 political parties in hopes convicing the court to reverse the nomination fees.
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Mr Okolie argued that charging exorbitant fees for expression of interest (EoI) and nomination was a violation of the rights of card-carrying members of the parites who intend to to vie for political offices but cannot afford the costs.
Delivering judgement on Wednesday, the judge, Binta Nyako, dismissed the suit on the grounds that the issue falls squarely within the internal affairs of political parties, which the court cannot interfere with.
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She noted that while fees charged by parties may be high, they do not amount to a constitutional wrong.
The judge held that members are free to leave one party for another if dissatisfied with how a party conducts its affairs.
However, she lauded Mr Okolie’s efforts in bringing the suit, but stated that the application had failed to succeed.
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She observed that all the parties were duly served with court documents, but only a few filed preliminary objections challenging Mr Okolie’s legal right to institute the suit.
The suit
Mr Okolie filed the suit on his own behalf and on behalf of citizens wishing to participate in the electoral process.
He asked the court to stop political parties from imposing fees that exclude qualified Nigerians from contesting in primaries.
He argued that the fees violated his fundamental rights to freedom of association under Section 40 of the Nigerian Constitution and amounted to discrimination contrary to Section 42.
He named 19 political parties, including the All Progressive Congress (APC), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and African Democratic Congress (ADC), as respondents. The defendants also inlcuded the INEC and the Attorney-General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi.
He urged the court to direct INEC to issue binding guidelines regulating maximum thresholds for nomination fees and restrain parties from fixing fees that could exclude qualified candidates in the 2027 primaries.
He also sought an order that any relief granted operate prospectively to protect constitutional rights ahead of elections.
Lawyers to the parties while presenting their arguments, urged the court to dismiss the suit for lack of merit, while some also challenged Mr Okolie’s locus standi (legal right to sue on the subject matter) and the court’s jurisdiction, noting that the suit concerned political parties’ internal affairs.
The AGF did not file any processes.
There was no legal representation for the APC, PDP and the Labour Party, among others.
However, the ADC, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Young Progressives Party (YPP), Accord, Zenith Labour Party (ZLP), Action People’s Party (APP), National Rescue Movement (NRC), Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) were represented in court by their lawyers. Some of those represented by lawyers submitted no written filing.
Reactions
After the judgement, Mr Okolie said he accepted the judgment in good faith, acknowledging the court’s discretion to grant or refuse his application.
He added that appealing would be impractical as political activities had begun, which could render the case academic.
“My interest is for democracy, for good governance, and I have done my best for my nation,” he told journalists.
Also, the National Legal Adviser of the YPP, Uche-Levis Abonyi, described the judgement as “sound”. He said the matter constituted an internal affair of political parties.
He added that political parties rely on the expression of interest and nomination forms for funding and that democracy allows members to contest under other parties if they find fees prohibitive.
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