As several political parties gear up for their nomination of candidates ahead of the 2023 general elections, the National Executive Committees (NEC) of these parties have begun releasing scheduled timetables for their respective party primaries, including detailed information on the election of delegates, aspirants’ screening process, and the cost of nomination forms. An important part of the process that has captured the attention of many Nigerians is the exorbitant prices of the nomination forms for the biggest political parties — the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Exorbitant Prices
On Wednesday, 20th of April, the APC announced that its presidential nomination form would go for a total of N100 million, while the governorship forms would be sold for N50 million. For the legislative offices category, nomination forms for the Senate goes for N20 million, while that of the House of Representatives and the State House of Assembly are pegged at N10 million and N2 million, respectively.
This fashion of jacking up the prices of party nomination forms isn’t exclusive to the APC. Just about a month ago, the PDP announced that its presidential nomination and expression of interest forms would both cost a total of N40 million, while the bid for the governorship would go for N21 million per candidate. For the parliamentary positions, aspirants will pick up the forms for the Senate at the cost of N3.5 million, the House of Representatives at N2.5 million, and the State House of Assembly at N600, 000. Similarly, in late March, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) stated that the nomination and expression of interest forms would cost its presidential aspirants a total of N25 million, while that of the governorship would go for N15 million. For the Senate, House of Representatives, and the State House of Assembly, both forms would be sold for a total of N10 million, N7million, and N2.5 million respectively.
Continuous Increase
What is most concerning about these prices is not just that they are exorbitant, but that they have also increased in every election cycle. For instance, in the 2015 presidential election which brought in President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB), the then newly formed APC sold its presidential nomination forms for N27 million. At the time, PMB expressed concerns about such an enormous amount, stating that: “it’s a pity I couldn’t influence this amount to be put down…but I felt heavily sorry for myself…N27 million is a big sum”. Yet, in the subsequent 2019 presidential election wherein he was the sole aspirant for the APC, the nomination and expression of interest forms were sold for a total of N45 million — a 66.7% increase in the price he purchased the forms in the previous elections.
Such an upward mark in the cost of nomination forms every election cycle seems to be universal across parties. For example, the PDP increased the cost of its presidential nomination forms from N12 million in 2019 to N40 million for the 2023 elections — a significant 233% increase. Although the party claimed to have lowered the cost of the forms for the 2019 elections, perhaps to encourage more aspirants; nevertheless, a comparison of the difference in prices between the 2015 and 2023 election cycle shows an 81% increase in the prices of the nomination forms. However, the cost of APGA’s presidential nomination forms remained the same for the 2019 and the 2023 elections, although it witnessed a significant increase in prices for the governorship and senatorial positions.
*APGA had no presidential nomination for the 2015 elections.
The charts above show that, from 2015 to the 2023 general elections, the cost of APCs presidential nomination forms has gone up by over 300%, while there is more than 800% increase in the cost of the governorship nomination forms, a 506% increase for the senate forms, and a 354.5% increase and 263.6% increase for the House of Representatives and House of Assembly, respectively — by far the highest among all 3 parties examined.
Nomination forms and Campaign Financing
While political parties may attempt to justify the costs of nomination forms on the grounds that such monies help to finance party expenses in the general elections, the unbridled increase in these costs over the last 8 years of Nigeria’s democracy should warrant stricter laws on campaign financing.
Yet, rather than a downward review of campaign spending limits for elective positions and ensuring a stricter compliance from political parties, earlier this year, the National Assembly (NASS), in the new Electoral Act, increased the campaign spending limits for the presidential positions from N1 billion to N5 billion. It also increased the limit for governorship campaigns to N1 billion, from the initial N200 million. This over 5-fold increase in campaign financing limit was equally applied to the Senate, House of Representatives, and State House of Assembly positions. Likewise, the lawmakers also increased the maximum amount of donation an individual candidate could receive, from N1 million to N50 million.
How do campaign spending limits of Nigeria compare to other countries? While the campaign spending limit for Member of Parliament (MP) candidates in the United Kingdom is set at £8,700 (approximately $11,334) per candidate, Nigerians vying for seats in the Senate and the House of Representatives are allowed to spend up to $239,645 (N100 million) and $167,751 (N70 million), respectively. Of course, one could argue on the difference in political systems between the two countries; nevertheless, such a huge difference is probably indefensible for a country with over 90 million poor people.
Flouting of Electoral Act
Furthermore, apart from the indiscriminate increase in campaign spending limits, perhaps a more important issue is the lack of implementation of the electoral laws on campaign financing. For instance, before its amendment, section 93 the Electoral Act (now section 89 [3]) stipulates that every political party must, within three months of the conduct of elections, submit an audited report of the party’s electoral expenses to INEC. While the intent here is to monitor political parties’ spending to ensure that such is within limits, parties have constantly flouted this law without repercussion.
Only 4 out of the 73 political parties that participated in the 2019 general elections submitted a report of their financial expenses to INEC within six months after the elections. Nothing more could be taken as a prima facie evidence of poor compliance monitoring on the part of INEC. Yet, during the 2019 elections, political parties such as the APC raked in about N6.9 billion from the sale of nomination forms alone.
Widening Political Exclusion
As the country prepares for the 2023 general elections, it is imperative to consider that such a huge cost of nomination forms could widen political exclusion. Already, research has established that high costs of electioneering is one factor that significantly limits the political participation of women and youth in Nigeria — considering that these two groups are also the most unemployed or underemployed population of the country.
At a time when youth and women are disproportionately underrepresented in Nigerian politics, increasing the cost of nomination forms amounts to double jeopardy of financial burden and political exclusion for them. Although some political parties such as the APC and the PDP have announced a payment exemption for women and a 50% reduction in the cost of nomination forms for the youth, such costs are only a tiny proportion of other financial costs candidates have to bear in Nigeria’s hugely monetized electoral process.
Perhaps, it is time to turn on a strong advocacy on responsible election financing, advancing what was achieved with the Not Too Young to Run Bill for the youth and what is hoped with the Special Seats Bill for women.