The Nigerian system is aware of this, accepts it as fait accompli and closes its eyes to the numbing reality. While in western democracies, the fear is that big corporations and wealthy individuals could wangle their ways into the state purse by stealth and corrupt its system, in Nigeria, the reality is that stolen government money constitutes, at a conservative estimate, 95 per cent of funds used to campaign for political offices. To curb bad money from meandering into campaign financing, Section 90(3) stipulates that “a political party shall not accept any monetary or other contribution which is more than N50,000,000 unless it can identify the source of the money or othercontribution to the Commission.” Thus, poisonous money is injected into the electioneering process, with very serious implications for the results of elections and the candidates who ultimately become representatives of the people.įor instance, the new Electoral Act 2022 contains very robust sections on campaign financing, ceilings and penalties for violations of the law.
A combination of a political culture that has accepted gifts as normal and a porous banking system that is easily the funnel of unsieved funds are the Achilles heels of this menace. Not lacking in laws to curtail the infiltration of “bad money” into the electoral process, Nigeria is however acutely lax in implementing these laws. This they do by donating huge amounts of money to candidates and political parties during electioneering and wringing commitments off them for favours of state commitments in policy and funding when elected. Many a times as well, it provides opportunities for individuals and corporations to hold governments by their esophagus. While private funding of political candidates and political parties by individuals looks harmless enough, it is most times an innocuous channel of funneling drug proceeds and slush funds into the system. In America and other democracies, violations of these laws carry strict penalties. To safeguard the integrity of the electoral process, laws are enacted to guide and guard the infiltration of “bad money” into elections. Between the year 20, it was estimated that the total spending in American presidential elections almost doubled from $3.1 billion to $5.8 billion. Elections require considerably huge expenditure. Because money is both spirit and human, money has mouth, talks and is a major voice in electoral politics. This is because it involves major ethical issues that can compromise the integrity of the electoral process.Īll over the world, election campaigning is not a tea party. In developed democracies, campaign financing is a big issue which the state is interested in. It is the how, when and where political parties and individuals vying for elective offices will raise and spend money with which they will influence political votes in their favour. So, how will Bola Tinubu, AtikuAbubakar, Peter Obi and presidential candidates of other political parties in Nigeria fare in the rat race to outspend one another? Where does each of them hope to secure this breathtaking campaign funding?Ĭampaign funding or financing is a major and important part of the electoral process. It is a season to witness the ascendancy of a massive, multi-billion Naira campaign industry which rivals the national budget.
September is Nigeria’s presidential campaign flag-off, preparatory to the February 2023 election.
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