APC defends the high cost of its nomination forms as obscure group buys Buhari's one for N45m

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari's recent decision to accept a N45m gift from an unknown association who paid for his presidential nomination form has come under fire from political commentators as a negation of the government's war against corruption.

 

Last week, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) announced that its presidential expression of interest and nomination forms would cost a whopping N45m ($125,000). President Buhari, who has said he will run for a second term, revealed that he could not afford the huge sum, so yesterday an obscure group which goes by the name the Nigerian Consolidation Ambassadors’ Network (NCAM), bought the form for him.

 

Kogi State governor Yahaya Bello also revealed that he was prepared to pay the N45m despite owing his civil servants about 11 month's salary arrears. Political commentators have condemned the donations, saying it negates President Buhari's ongoing campaign against corruption and the diversion of public funds to private use.

 

Akin Osuntokun, the spokesman for the Coalition for Nigeria Movement (CNM),  said the price of APC forms showed the ruling party was not committed to fighting corruption. He described the cost of President Buhari's form being picked by a group of persons as deceit and hypocrisy on the part of APC in relation to its fight against corruption.

 

Mr Osuntokun 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 and it doesn’t have to be monetary.

 

“This is nothing but hypocrisy on the part of the APC as 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?”

 

However, the APC has defended the high cost of its nomination forms, saying that this is because it wants to use the proceeds to fund its election campaign and not resort to the use of public funds. APC publicity secretary Yekini Nabena, said that unlike the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) the Buhari administration would never betray public trust because it wanted to contest in an election.

 

Mr Nabena added: “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.”

 

All of the APC's nomination forms are expensive with governorship aspirants being asked to N22.5m and senatorial candidates asked to fork out N7m. Those wanting to run for the Federal House of Representative must come up with N3.8m, while those interested in standing for state houses of assembly must purchase their forms for N1.1m.

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