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In the new Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill recently passed by both the Senate and House of Representatives, the National Assembly jerked upwards the maximum election expenses to be incurred by a presidential candidate to N5 billion from N1 billion , indicating some 400 percent increase.
Lawmakers also increased the campaign expenditure by candidates of political parties in governorship, National Assembly seats, area councils as well as donations to candidates of political parties by individuals and entities.
BusinessDay findings revealed that some of the campaign expenditures consist of cost of organising political rallies, printing of campaign posters, leaflets, t-shirts and fez caps, purchase and branding of campaign vehicles as well as television, radio, newspaper, magazine, online and billboard advertisements.
For instance, the current law puts the campaign limits of presidential, governorship and senatorial candidates at N1 billion, N200 million and N40 million respectively.
This indicates that some of the elections spending limits were increased from between 150 to 900 percent in the new amendment.
The law makers claim that increase in the ceiling was informed by the need to make it conform to modern realities.
Ironically, the amendment is coming at a time that the National Assembly is awaiting the #NotTooYoungToRun Bill, currently before the 36 state houses of assembly, which seeks to reduce the age limit for running for elected offices in Nigeria. Apart from reducing the age limit, the bill also seeks to encourage younger people who will likely not be as rich as their older contemporaries to seek election positions.
But some analysts are opposed to the review, saying lawmakers are supposed to focus on how to checkmate the activities of moneybag politicians. According to them, monetisation of politics is capable muzzling the nation’s political system if left unchecked.
In an interview with BusinessDay, Nwagwu Ezenwa, Chairman, Partners for Electoral Reform said the move will massively discourage prospective candidates.
“The continued monetization of our politics will ostensibly push away self-respecting people. Even if you do not have the resources to contest, you will depend on people who have either put their hands in public purse or only those who have had access to public funds will be recycling themselves in politics.”
Ezenwa lamented that money-politics had eroded the core values of politics which is to serve the people.
“Even if a professor saves all his salary for all the time he will be teaching in the University, he will not be able to save N5 billion. In fact, he can’t save N1 billion.
“In terms of lawmaking, what they (lawmakers) have done is to say let’s make a law that is close to reality. But as a keen watcher and observer of electoral process in Nigeria, it subverts the aspiration of self-respecting people. Except you are in big business or have access to public money, election is no longer for you,” he stated.
BusinessDay gathered that the clean copy of the new electoral act is about to be transmitted from the office of the Clerk to the National Assembly (CNA) to the President for assent.
There are, however, strong signals that the President will likely veto the Bill, even as the National Assembly is squaring up to override the President’s veto.
The Bill provides a timeline for submission of list of candidate, sequence of elections, guidelines for political parties’ primaries, use of technological devices, and limit of campaign expenses, omission of names of candidates or logos of political parties among others.
Checks on the amended Electoral Act obtained by BusinessDay revealed that the proposal also placed a campaign ceiling of N100 million (representing 150 percent increase) and N70 million (250 percent increase) respectively for senatorial and House of Representatives candidates. Currently, the 2010 Electoral Act pegs the amounts at N40, 000,000 and N20,000,000 for both positions.
In the case of State Assembly, chairmanship and Councillor candidates of area council elections, candidates are not to spend above N30 million for both state assembly and chairmanship candidates (representing 200 percent increase) and N5 million (representing 400 percent increase) for Councillor standard bearers.
The Bill also fixed donations to candidates of political parties by individuals and entities at N10 million as against N1 million prescribed in the 2010 Electoral Act (representing 900 percent increase).
“A candidate who knowingly acts in contravention of this section, commits an offense and is liable on conviction to a maximum fine of 1 percent of the amount permitted as the limit of campaign expenditure under this Act or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or both,” Section 87 of the proposal states.
Lawmakers also amended Section 32 of the Bill by inserting a new clause, which stipulates a maximum fine of between N2 million and N5 million to media houses that fail to allocate equal time to political parties or candidates.
The Bill equally imposes a fine of N5 million or at least five years imprisonment on a card-carrying member of any political party that conceals his identity to secure appointment with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Furthermore, it slams a fine of N1 million or one year imprisonment against any Presiding Officer of INEC that refuses to display originals of electoral materials to Polling Agents before commencement of any poll.
However, analysts have blamed the inability of political parties to submit their campaign expenses to the electoral body as an impediment to monitoring the actual campaign finances of parties.
In October 2017, INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu disclosed that only five political parties had complied with the legal provision mandating them to submit their campaign expenses during the 2015 general election to the Commission.
Various figures had emerged over the 2015 general election which had been described as the costliest election in the country’s history.
The Commission had given an estimate of N1 trillion as what was spent by itself, political parties and candidates for the 2015 elections.
According to the commission’s breakdown, while the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) expended N8.74 billion in “traceable” media and other related expenses in the last exercise, all the other opposition parties spent N2.91 billion for the same purposes.
Similarly, the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) claimed that the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the PDP spent N11.66 billion to finance the 2015 presidential poll alone.
The Commission also sought the cooperation of the anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), in help tracking the campaign finances of political parties and their candidates.
Also, a political commentator, Taiye Ibidapo, submitted that the reduction of age in the current constitution amendment exercise may not achieve its purpose if the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill is signed into law in its current form.
His words: “It is a draw back on the #NotTooYoungToRun Bill passed by the National Assembly last year. What is the essence of reducing age limits for elected offices while increasing the campaign expenses by candidates of political parties on the other hand? It therefore defeats the purpose of the Bill, except lawmakers are telling us that the Bill is aimed at their children whom they are grooming to succeed them. It is like robbing Peter to pay Paul.”
Reacting to concerns raised by analysts, Senate Spokesperson, Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, however said the ceiling does not prevent others from contesting but is meant to check abuse.
“We are in a democracy and it is a participatory process that involves people coming from different locations to meet at a particular point. When you say cost and you are giving somebody a ceiling, it doesn’t construe that that person must have that raw cash before you go into electioneering. Let’s take the presidential race for instance.
“Anybody contesting presidential election has 37 states he will crisscross the country from Cross River, Maiduguri, Yobe, Jigawa, Kano, Rivers, Bayelsa etc.
So, activities consume resources and if you sit down and look at the various activities that politicians engage in for them to be elected, it is money that is being spent.
“So, it is all those form of things we are looking at before arriving at the ceiling. 70 percent of United States campaign cost is on advertisement, the rest is on logistics. But because they have good transport network, logistics is not even as serious as you think.
“Throughout my campaign, I covered 72,000 kilometers. Lagos to Abuja is 755 kilometers. This implies that between Lagos and Abuja, I went 95 times in my senatorial district alone.”
OWEDE AGBAJILEKE, Abuja
