512 Aspirants Pay N16.4bn to Purchase APC’s Presidential, Guber, Senate Forms for 146 Position, 366 to Lose
- It has been reported that 512 hopefuls paid N16.4 billion to be flagbearers of presidential, governorship, and senate positions for the All Progressive Congress.
- Only 174 tickets are up for grabs, one presidential, 36 gubernatorial, and 109 senatorial seats leaving 366 in a tight corner
- Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and Rotimi Ameachi are among the prominent figures that would not want to be left out.
PAY ATTENTION: Click “See First” under the “Following” tab to see Legit.ng News on your Facebook News Feed!
Despite the country's economic challenges, it has been discovered that 512 Nigerian politicians spent almost N16.4 billion for nomination and expression of interest forms for the All Progressive Congress's Presidential, Governorship, and Senate elections.
When the money is added to the amount paid by PDP aspirants, the discrepancy between the Nigerian elite and regular citizens becomes further clearer.
According to statistics provided by Felix Morka, APC's National Publicity Secretary, during an interview on Arise TV, 28 politicians picked the party's presidential form, 133 paid for the gubernatorial forms, and 351 bought the Senate forms.
Source: Twitter
The presidential nomination form in APC goes for N100 million; the governorship form is sold for N50 million while the Senate form goes for N20 million.
PAY ATTENTION: Join Legit.ng Telegram channel! Never miss important updates!
Based on Calculation for the Presidential form, the 28 aspirants would have netted the party a total of N2.8 billion.
Morka however stated that only 25 applicants had submitted their forms at the time of speaking.
The governorship form, which costs N50 million, brought in N6.65 billion for APC, while senate aspirants paid N7.02 billion.
Winners and losers
As earlier mentioned a total of 512 candidates purchased the APC's form but only 1 presidential, 109 senators and 36 flagbearers for gubernatorial will emerge at the primaries, leaving 366 candidates going home empty.
APC timetable for primaries
According to the reviewed timetable released by the National Public Secretary of the APC, Felix Morka, on Wednesday, 18 May 2022 the party will now hold its special convention to elect its presidential candidate on May 29 and 30.
The National Executive Committee of the Party had, during its last meeting, settled for May 30 to June 1, Premium Times reports
The primaries for the House of Representatives and Governorship will now hold on the same day, May 26, while May 27 was fixed for appeal.
May 27 is the new date for primaries for the Senate and State House of Assembly while May 28 is the date for the appeal.
Expert speaks
Kunle Ajayi a public affair analyst in his remark explain that the corrupting influence of money in Nigerian politics is a concern to all.
According to him, Nigerian politics is now about capacity but how much of a deep pocket an aspirant has.
"As soon as how much politicians can spend on the campaign was raised, it became obvious that parties will respond and love to have those with the money to be their flagbearer. APC now has over N30bn when you consider all other forms sold."
APC releases 9, tough conditions for Tinubu, Osinbajo, others
Meanwhile, the ruling party had released nine guidelines to govern the conduct of presidential, governorship, and parliamentary aspirants before, during, and after its primaries.
One of the conditions is that aspirants have been prohibited from suing the party or any of its members without first making use of avenues for redress and in-house settlement mechanisms.
Added to this, the hopefuls at all levels must sign undertakings to accept the results of the primaries and work for whoever emerges as the flagbearer ahead of 2023.
Source: Legit.ng
