By Omeiza Ajayi, Abuja

FORMER Governor of Cross River state and chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress APC, Mr Clement Ebri has faulted the hike in the cost of nomination and expression of interest forms of the party for next year’s general election.

Ebri in a chat with Saturday Vanguard said the APC owes it to itself and the teeming Nigerians, who voted it into power for two consecutive terms, to remain a party of true progressives.

The former governor, who raised seven posers against the cost of forms said party leaders must not forget that the APC came to power on the aegis of the promise to fight against corruption in the system, “and the Nigerian people must continue to see us as accountable stewards of the mandate given to us.”

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On Wednesday, the National Executive Committee, NEC of the APC approved the cost of forms presented to it by the Senator Abdullahi Adamu-led National Working Committee, NWC. While the Expression of Interest form for state assembly goes for N500, 000, its Nomination form is pegged at N1.5 million bringing the total to N2 million.

The Expression of Interest form for the House of Representatives goes for N1 million while the nomination form goes for N9 million. Also, the Expression of Interest form for Senate goes for N3 million while the nomination form is pegged at N17 million.

For Governorship, the Expression of Interest form is pegged at N10 million and its nomination form pegged at N40 million.

As for the presidential ticket, the expression of interest form goes for N30 million and while the nomination form is pegged at N70 million.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who was part of the meeting was said to have advised against the high cost of the forms, saying it was not justifiable.

A member of NEC who pleaded anonymity told Saturday Vanguard that the vice president wanted a downward review of the cost.

“The vice president protested and advised against the high cost of nomination and expression of interest forms. He was of the opinion that the costs were unjustifiable, saying if as a sitting chief executive, such money would be difficult to pull out of one’s legitimate earnings. He made a very strong point but at the end, majority had their way,” said the source.

Seven posers

Ebri, however, said for a party that is fighting corruption, the exorbitant cost of expression of interest and nomination forms raises a number of key questions.

His posers: “How are those presently in government able to legitimately raise the required funds to qualify for the party’s presidential ticket nomination for example? If such candidates claim they are being sponsored by friends and backers, can those backers show evidence of their income via their income tax returns? What is the implication of this on the cost of running the actual campaigns?

“How many people can legitimately spend this much to obtain party nomination and still effectively be able to fund their campaigns? Will this not adversely affect voters perception of our great party, if we do not review our position? Are we justifying inflation by such a whopping increase in the cost of nomination forms from 2015 to 2023? Are we not inadvertently making the APC a party of wealthy by the wealthy for the wealthy?”

He said the last question has deep implications for a party that is in power and as a custodian, necessarily has access to its common wealth.

He continued: “In the interest of the party therefore, I implore the National Working Committee to rethink the party’s position on this matter that is no doubt generating a lot of debate and controversy from within and without the party. It is well within the purview of the NWC in accordance with the powers delegated to it by the NEC for a specified period, to continue to work for the good of the party, to review the cost of nomination forms presently demanded of aspirants to elective offices on the platform of our beloved party. This will help to ensure that the APC strategically repositions itself as the progressive party that we have all laboured to make it.

“We should not give the impression that one must belong to the billionaires club to aspire to the highest political office in the land – the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. We are and must remain a progressive and equal opportunity party.

“The current party position on the cost of forms for Expression of Interest and Nomination for elective offices appears to vitiate the very principles upon which the party campaigned and was voted into power.”

Ebri advised that all true party men and women should be concerned that the APC which was founded on the values and ideals of progressive philosophy will make pre-qualification for elective offices – at state and national level – the exclusive preserve of party members with either great personal wealth or who have unlimited access to other sources of funding.

According to him, the danger this poses to the party is that many prospective and otherwise eminently qualified office seekers who do not possess enormous personal wealth will in every practical sense, be precluded from seeking party nomination, regardless of the depth and breadth of their popular support.

He posited: “If as some people may argue, that the reason for the exorbitant cost of nomination forms is simply to prune the number of contenders, or to delineate the pretenders from the contenders, then I think that argument is flawed. There are ample objective and progressive criteria such as: integrity, experience, character, political antecedents, empathy, intelligence, goodwill, etc, which can be employed to enable the emergence of genuinely qualified candidates.

“We all know that personal wealth was not the yardstick of assessment that enabled President Muhammadu Buhari to emerge as flag bearer of the party in 2015 and 2019.

“A comparative analysis of the APC’s cost of Expression of Interest and Nomination forms and that of the main opposition party shows that a member of the APC with gubernatorial aspirations will not only be spending more than twice what his/her counterparts in the opposition are, but will also be spending more to vie for gubernatorial office than the opposition candidates vying for the office of president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“Furthermore, as laudable as the concession of 50 per cent reduction for youths (contestants under the age of 40 years) may seem, it is worthy of note that the youths in the APC who are vying for governorship will still be paying more than their opposition counterparts, and youths vying for the presidential ticket will equally be paying more than what the opposition presidential aspirants are paying to vie for nomination.

The case of women and persons living with disability (PWD) is equally worrisome. Given the history of social and political exclusion of women and PWD, which the party has been in the vanguard of addressing, how many persons living with disability can afford to pay Thirty Million Naira (N30,000,000) as Expression of interest for the presidential ticket?”