Last month, the All Progressive Congress (APC) announced the sales of its nomination form for various political offices ahead of the 2023 elections. For the presidential nomination form, the price is pegged at a total of N100 million, and governorship forms at N50 million. The cost of the forms for the Senate, House of Representatives, and State House of Assembly go for N20 Million, 10million, and N2 million, respectively.
With the exorbitant cost of the ruling party’s nomination forms, many Nigerians thought that a lot of politicians will automatically suspend their political ambitions, particularly for the presidential position in the upcoming election. But, the reverse is the case, as an unprecedented number have declared and gone ahead to purchase the presidential form.
Today is the last day for the sales of forms as announced by the National Executive Committees (NEC) of the APC, and there is no telling who might still pick up a form but thus far a total of 26 aspirants have purchased the N100 million presidential form excluding the controversial purchase made by a coalition of Northern groups for the immediate former President, Goodluck Jonathan.
Out of the 26 aspirants who have purchased their forms, there is only one female. Despite the party’s announcement of reduced form prices for women, the cost may still be too high at N30 million for women, and this may have contributed to the low female representation.
The story is the same for the youth, despite the 50% reduction in form prices for the youth, it appears the presidential forms are still unaffordable as none of the 26 aspirants who have purchased the forms fall under the youth age bracket (35 years). The youngest among the aspirants is 40-year-old, Nicholas Felix, and he confirmed that he got the 50% discount.
By region, the majority of the aspirants who have obtained their forms come from the South-East, 9 in total (34.6% of the aspirants). The South-West and South-South follow with 7 and 5 respectively.
The North Central and East regions have 2 aspirants each, while the North West has 1.
There is a skewed distribution of aspirants between the Southern and Northern regions. The South East is yet to produce a candidate despite arguments for zoning the presidency to the South and the South-East in particular.
As the aspirants continue with their nationwide consultation in preparation for the APC primaries scheduled for May 30th, Dataphyte looks at the make-up of the party delegates who will decide, through their votes, who becomes the party’s flag bearer for the 2023 presidential election.
According to a report by Daily Trust, the ruling party has a total of 7,800 delegates. These delegates are comprised of the party’s national chairman, one member of NEC from each state; serving and past presidents and vice presidents; serving and past governors and deputies; serving and past lawmakers both from the state and federal level; past speakers, deputies, and principal officers of the state houses of assembly and past members of the National Working Committee (NWC).
An analysis of the data shows that Kano and Katsina states have the highest number of delegates — 465 and 384, respectively. The FCT and Bayelsa state has 51, and 79 delegates, respectively.
By region, the North-West has the highest number of delegates — a total of 1,924 delegates — who will participate in the election of the party’s presidential candidate. South West follows with the second-highest number of delegates. The South-East and South-South have the lowest number of delegates.
Until the primaries, the aspirants will continue to tour across the country to woo these delegates for their votes at the party’s primaries at the end of this month.