In case you don’t know, elections are a multi-billion-dollar industry in Nigeria. If you
tabulate what the Federal Government spends to conduct general, bye, supplementary and
off- cycle elections, what political parties, aspirants and candidates spend on their
electioneering activities, what the security agencies spend to secure the election
ecosystem in the lead-up to, during and after elections, what the donor partners spend
to support the Civil Society Organisations on voter education, election observation and
observation of election tribunals, what the National Assembly spends to amend or enact
the Electoral Act and constitutional alterations relating to elections and what the
variousmedia organisationsspend on logistics to cover election campaigns and election
day activities; it is gargantuan and mind- blowing!
I am one of the experts in the field of political finance in Nigeria. I have been involved
in policy design and capacity building for politicians, electoral management bodies,
journalists, civil society organisations and even security agencies on tracking of
campaign finance and combating vote trading. Many Nigerians have not been able to
connect the dots between campaign finance and corruption in governance. That’swhat
thispiece isabout. Am using the political contestants(aspirants and candidates) as a
case study.
Officially, election spending for a candidate in an election begins with the purchase of
Expression of Interest and Nomination Forms. Ahead of the 2026 party primaries, these
are what aspirantsunder All Progressives Congress, African Democratic Congress and
Nigeria Democratic Congress charged. For APC, the party charged N100m, N50m, N20m
and N10m for presidential, gubernatorial, senatorial and House of Representatives
positions respectively. ADCcharged N90m, N30m, N10m and N5m f or same positionswhile
NDC’s fees are N60, N30, N8m and N6m for similar positions. However, unlike the other
two political parties, NDC came up with a policy of aspirants paying only Expression of
Interest fee, which are pegged at N20m, N10m, N3m and N2m respectively before
contesting party primaries, while only aspirants who win at primaries get to pay the
Nomination Fees(which is the balance of the aforementioned fees). This is exemplary
and unprecedented.
Section 92 subsections2 – 7 of the Electoral Act 2026 places a limit on what each candidate
is to spend on his or her campaign. For presidential candidate the limit isN10 billion,
governorship N3bn, Senatorial N500m, House of RepresentativesN250m, State House of
Assembly candidate N100m, Area Council Chairmanship N100m and Councillorship
N10m. It is important to note that the candidates don’t need to spend up
to this ceiling. The truth, however, is that many frontline candidates spend well above
this limit for their elections. There is a penalty for breach of this provision. Section 92(9)
says“A candidate who knowingly acts in contravention of this section commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine of 1 per cent of the amount permitted as
the limit of campaign expenditure under this Act or imprisonment for a term not more
than 12 months or both.” Unfortunately, for 27 years of this Fourth Republic, no one
has been prosecuted for overshooting this campaign expenditure limit. That’swhy
impunity continues.
It’s been very difficult to effectively track political finance because of so many hidden
costs. Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, in a viral video at the commissioning of his
constituency projects, said some of his allies are angry with him for not contesting the
2026 governorship election in his home state of Ekiti. He said, “Because I declined the
push to contest against Governor Oyebanji in 2026, some people fought me. You see,
contesting elections in Ekiti has now become an industry for some people. What some
people are interested in is to force you to contest so that 2 to 3 years before the primary
election you will be spending and then you become a ‘permanent employer of labour’.”
How do you track this kind of spending?
It’s barely six months to the 2027 General Election; candidates’ nomination process is
ongoing with the political parties uploading their candidates’ nomination particulars on
INEC portal. Be on the lookout; you’ll see the campaign offices of candidates sprouting
like weeds. The truth is, no serious candidate will rely on his or her political party office
for planning and coordination of campaigns. There isn’t enough space for all the
candidates being sponsored by the party to share. For planning and logistics, privacy
and confidentiality are necessary. Meanwhile, depending on available resources, many
candidates may have more than one campaign office. Candidates such as President
Bola Tinubu of APC, Atiku Abubakar of ADC and Peter Obi of NDC will likely have
campaign offices in FCT, 36 states, 6 geopolitical zones and 768 Local Government and
Six Area Councils.
This is not mandatory but depending on available resources. These
offices will be staffed and equipped, campaign vehicles procured, interactive website
launched and political adverts publicised and rallies held.
There are hundreds of pre-election matters filed across our High Courts over disputes
emanating from the party primaries. Litigation either as a plaintiff or defendant does
not come cheap. In fact, the election period is a boom season for many lawyers, especially
those with a reputation for winning election-related matters. Political parties do not bear
the cost of litigation for their contestants. Everybody paddles his or her canoe.
Despite being financially exhausted after five months of campaigns, it is still the
candidates that bear the cost of paying the Polling Agents and setting up the Situation
Room to track election results and carry out parallel vote tabulation. Spending does
not end there. Post-election litigation comes up after declaration of winners. While
some of those who lost will go and file cases against the victors at Election Petition
Tribunals, the victors will also assemble a crack team of seasoned lawyers to defend their
mandate. This legal tussle will drag on for between 240 days and 300 days depending on
the position being vied for. For instance, for a gubernatorial election, the case will be
determined within 180 days at the tribunal, 60 days at the Court of appeal and 60 days
at the Supreme Court. For other positions, it’s180 daysat the tribunal and 60 days at
the appellate court.
Now, considering the humongous resources spent by contestantson electionsin Nigeria,
is it surprising that politically exposed persons are alleged to be corrupt when they are
in government? Many uninformed people said our political office holders earn the
highest salary and allowances in the world. That’sdebatable. For me, legitimate earnings
either in terms of allowances and salary may not cover your election expenses in four
years. Thisisbecause asyou make money in politics, you also have to spend on a multitude
of your supportersand loyalistsafter your inauguration.
Former Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Solomon Dalung, recently disclosed
that lawmakers demanded a N200 million bribe from him during his first budget defense. He stated that the demand was made after he presented hisministry’sbudget
proposal. When he responded that he could not fulfill the request because there was no
budget line for ” bribe” in the appropriation, the committee abruptly dismissed him
from the session and continued discussions with the ministry’sPermanent Secretary.
This is a corrupt practice no doubt, but the lawmakers were desperately looking f or
avenue to recoup their humongous election fund. Don’t forget, lawmakersdon’t control
budget like their counterpart in the executive arm of government. The irony is that,
some people contest more than once across many electoral cycles before they
eventually win. Once they do, the rat race will be on how to recoup their previous
investment.
I .G: @j ideoj ong
