The opposition groups including the Peoples Democratic Party, Coalition for Nigeria Movement and the Social Democratic Party have lashed out at the All Progressives Congress over the high cost of its nomination forms.
The APC had on Tuesday stated that a presidential aspirant would pay N45m for its expression of interest and nominations forms; a governorship aspirant would pay N22.5m; a senatorial aspirant, N7m; House of Representatives, N3.85m; and state assemblies, N850, 000.
Commenting on the high cost of nomination forms, the PDP said it had confirmed the APC as a party of looters.
It said for a party that charged so little four years ago to turn around three years later and ask its members to bring so much to pick nomination forms, was “horrible”.
National Chairman of the party, Prince Uche Secondus, who spoke with News men Abuja on Wednesday, asked Nigerians to notice the sudden change in the fortune of the APC.
He said, “When we heard about the nomination fees, we all thought it was a lie or joke. But events have shown that the fees are real and the APC is indeed a party of deceit.
“How do you want someone who claimed not to have touched N14m three years ago to now have such huge sum of money when he claimed he came to power to serve?
“We have now seen that instead of serving Nigerians, the APC and its members have come to serve themselves and their cronies.
“The amount of money it is asking its members and even Nigerians interested in elective offices to bring is horrible and criminal.
“Such action has shown the APC as a party of a few people who have either looted funds meant for the entire Nigerians or are still looting.
“Nigerians should resist it by running away from the party and its agents. In the next four years, it will definitely ask Nigerians to pay like N100m for presidential nomination fees.”
Secondus also doubted the claim that a group of people had purchased the forms for President Muhammadu Buhari.
APC not committed to fighting corruption, says Obasanjo-led coalition
On its part, the CNM led by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Buhari deceived Nigerians in a similar manner during the build-up to the presidential primary of the APC when he claimed that he took a loan of N27.5m in order to purchase the APC forms.
Speaking with News men on Wednesday, the Spokesman for the CNM, Mr Akin Osuntokun, said the party was not committed to fighting corruption.
He said, “Any party that claims to fight corruption needs to deemphasise the idea of splashing money around or placing fees ranging from N45 to N50m to purchase forms. If your aim is to weed out pretenders from the list of aspirants, there are other ways to do that. It doesn’t have to be monetary.
“This is nothing but hypocrisy on the part of the APC. The President had said in 2014 that he obtained a bank loan in order to purchase the form. How did he pay it back? Today, they claim some youths purchased the forms but this is nothing but hypocrisy.
“The APC has already made it clear that Buhari will be its candidate. So, why are they engaging in these games?”
APC won’t use public funds to finance polls
When contacted, the acting National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Yekini Nabena, said unlike the PDP, the President Muhammadu Buhari-led APC administration would never betray public trust because it wanted to contest in an election.
He said, “Everybody knows that this administration under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari will never put its hands into the public treasury to take money for elections.
“Unlike the PDP which went to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and got public money from Diezani Allison- Madueke and the former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, we will not do that. We have decided to use what we get from the sale of forms to run our elections. I wonder why the PDP has made this their business.
High nomination fees corruption—CSOs
A civil society group, Advocates for Good Governance, described the high nomination fees being charged by political parties as corruption, noting that it would encourage office-holders to steal public fund.
AGG Convener, Macdonald Akhirome, stated that high nomination fees by parties were the seed of political corruption in the country, which he said the National Assembly should curb through appropriate legislation.
“This (high nomination fee) is the grassroots origination of corrupt practices, it is clear that corruption is being encouraged at the party level because if aspirants are paying such exorbitant amounts of money at that level, what do you expect them to do when they get to the office?” he wondered.
The Convener, Concerned Nigerians, Deji Adeyanju, noted that the outrageous fees were meant to discourage indigent individuals from running for office.
He said, “Even though the opposition parties have drastically reduced their nomination fees, they are still not ready to make public office unattractive because they are making aspirants to get money by all means to purchase nomination forms and this encourages corruption.”
The activist added, “When people get into office, they would try to recoup the money they used in buying nomination forms and campaign. This would make them dip their hands in public coffers. If the end goal was to ensure accountability, the nomination forms should be almost free.”
