By HENRY UMORU & JOSEPH ERUNKE

A member of the Committee on Political Parties and Electoral Matters, Prof. Muhammed Nur Alkali, has decried the prohibitive cost of contesting elections in Nigeria and called for urgent solutions.

Stressing how expensive it was to contest for any political office in Nigeria especially that of governorship, he said one would need to have about N2 billion before one can really think of participating in a gubernatorial contest, adding that this was outrageous and there was need to do something about it.

According to him, the entire electoral process is deeply corrupt, and the task before the committee is to find ways of making the system corruption-free.
He also spoke about the rising cost of prosecution election campaigns, and the over-bearing influence of state chief executives, adding that the committee must work out ways of removing the control of parties from the state governors.