Gubernatorial elections: The expenditure battle awaiting Jega
PROFESSOR Attahiru Jega, Chairman of INEC
A governorship aspirant walked into the office of his party chairman with a Jeep and the sum of one million naira in tow. ‘Good morning, my chairman,’ the aspirant greeted.
“Good morning, Chief Jonson Barnabas,” the chairman replied. “How is your family?”
“They are fine, sir,” the aspirant returned.
The courtesies done with, the two went into serious business.
“My chairman, I have come to greet you and to intimate you formally of my plans as we approach this election season,” Barnabas began his little speech. “As you already know, I’m contesting the position of governor. I have come this day to let you know in a formal way that I need your goodwill. Honestly, sir, I need your support.”
“It’s alright, my dear,” the chairman said, smiling. “You already have my support. You are a loyal member of the party. You have my support.”
The two discussed such little things that engage people when they are merely clearing the grounds for the main topic and as the chairman began to look like ‘I am a busy man, do what you came for and go,” Barnabas, clearing his throat and groping for the right words to use, stammered, “Emn, my chairman, I brought this for you to get a few bottles of wine; you know, to entertain friends and members like me who come here so often to trouble you.”
He picked a little bag containing the cash and placed it on one side of the chairman’s table, saying simultaneously as he rose to his feet, “I will have to take my leave, my chairman.”
The chairman, also rising from his chair and motioning for a handshake, remarked, “You are welcome, Mr Barnabas. You are always welcome to my office. It’s also your office, anyway.”
Barnabas, extending his right hand for the courtesy and dipping the left hand for the car keys from his pocket, said, “There is a little gift outside, sir. One small jeep which madam may like.”
Politicians suddenly become generous when they are seeking power and go from office to office and house to house with money and valuables to give to people they know they will need if they are to stand the chance of getting into the office that they seek.
These are people, in most cases, who are away in distant lands and hardly go back to their roots. When they do go, they relate with family members and maybe, a few close neighbours. To request the favour of hitherto unreached neighbours and other members of the target constituency, they need money both to distribute either in cash or in kind, or both. Big money is invariably involved. Political contest becomes a matter of how much you have. So, the haves, who may not mean a bit of the promises they make, get into office while the have-nots, who may be a whole lot better in terms of honest intentions than the moneybags, crash out of the race.
Failed politicians ask regularly for a ‘level playing field’. What makes the field uneven most times is money: The possession of it and the want of it. They call it money politics. Money makes many politicians. Poverty wrecks most of them. When fine politicians fail because they have no money to pave the way to public office, society suffers.
Big money. Recently, Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria revealed that several troubled Nigerian banks lent over N300 billion to politicians who never paid back. The funds have been written off as bad debt. In the probe that dovetailed Sanusi’s banking reform, many politicians were accused of using phoney companies and front to borrow money from banks, funds they were unable to repay even when the banks were about to crash.
Only on Friday, President Goodluck Jonathan signed into law, the amended Electoral Act expected to clear the way for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to conduct the 2011 elections with fair chances of success. The Bill is the legal framework expected to guide it in conducting the polls.
“This bill contains fundamental changes aimed at improving the conduct of elections in our country,” Jonathan said after signing the amended Act.
One of the changes the president would have in mind is a provision limiting the sums that politicians seeking elective positions can spend for campaign purposes. Listed are categories of people aspiring either to be president, governor, national or state assembly member, local council chairman, or councillor.
Section 90 (1) of the Bill, now a law, reads: The Commission (INEC) shall have power to place limitation on the amount of money or other assets which an individual or group of persons can contribute to a political party.
91 (2): The maximum election expenses to be incurred by a candidate at a presidential election shall be one billion naira.
91 (3): The maximum election expenses to be incurred by a candidate at a governorship election shall be two hundred million naira.
The law limits how much candidates for the Senate, House of Representatives and state Houses of Assembly can legally spend as follows: N40 million, N20 million, and N10 million respectively. The law allows a maximum of N10 million and N1 expenses for candidates asking to be voted as local council chairman or councillor respectively.
The National Assembly which passed the Bill and Mr President who signed it, would have been convinced that it will curb corruption at the level of elections and reduce the undue advantage that the rich often have over the poor. Will it?
What is the desirability of the law in the first place?
CAMPAIGN FOR A GOVERNORSHIP ASPIRANT REQUIRES BIG MONEY –SHABAN
Alhaji Sani Sha’aban, the governorship candidate of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) in Kaduna State in 2007, told Sunday Trust that his aspiration dug deep into his pockets.
He narrated the process: “What we went through in 2007 elections is beyond many people. We are familiar with some governorship candidates who toured only the state headquarters and the headquarters of some senatorial districts. They reserved their resources until the days just before the elections when they will come in full force to buy over whoever they believe can be their stumbling block. It is big money too but a lot less than when you want to move round the state to meet the real voters, the people at the grassroots. I wanted to reach out to every nook and cranny. I wanted to see for myself the situation people are facing. If you are to quantify all the tours in monetary terms, it involves a lot of money. As an aspirant, you have to spend lots of money even before you become your party’s flagbearer. For instance, before I became the flag bearer of my party, I embarked upon two campaigns. I traversed the 23 local government areas in the state and at least I was moving with a motorcade of nothing less than 300 vehicles. Everybody in Kaduna state knew about Sha’aban’s campaign train.
“Let’s assume that out of 300 vehicles, about 120 of them are buses and those buses have to be hired at a conservative estimate of N15, 000 per bus. How about the feeding of the party faithfuls in the buses? Let us say, you are giving all the people who accompany you N500 per day; which is for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day. This goes on for like a day or two before you return, refresh, and go back. It took us about two and a half months to go round the 23 LGAs. As you move, you have so many interest groups to satisfy. You have, for instance, the youth wings to attend to, the women groups are also there, you have an Islamic function or one church bazaar to attend and you have to drop some money for them. You equally have personal individual demands on your campaign train to meet. The situation is such that you may find some people in the places that you visit who believe in you but are in dire need. If you calculate all this that you do just to get the party ticket, you would imagine how much you would need to prosecute your election campaign. It is not easy at all.”
The real life experience suggests that a governorship aspiration is big money going from the aspirant or candidate to people helping with the campaign, to the vehicles to convey them to campaign venues, and to the people who make up his constituency that he has to see.
Sha’aban’s experience also suggests that some campaign expenses, especially the gifts to encourage patronage or the cash given in confidence to meet the needs of people who are similarly important, could be difficult, if possible at all, to track and call for accounts. How then will the new law be implemented?
Asked what the opposition intends to do, he said, “It is not a matter of the opposition alone. It is for every Nigerian who doesn’t want people who have the position and power to malign the rest of us. This is an imposition of a commercialized electoral law to sell this country. People will revolt against this law because it won’t help the electoral process in Nigeria. All of us must join hands to fight this crime. I want to remind the National Assembly members that they won’t be there forever.”
NASS HAS LEGALIZED CORRUPTION –CNPP
On its part, the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP), believes that allowing governorship candidates as much as N200 million for campaigns will only succeed in legalizing corruption in the country.
Speaking to Sunday Trust, the CNPP Secretary General, Chief Willy Ezugwu, said, “as far as we are concerned, the National Assembly has legalized corruption in this country. It is sad because we know that it is the greatest problem in Nigeria. Our setback today results from corruption. Now, it has been legalized by the provision of this law.”
Ezugwu said the sum will discourage good Nigerians from politics. “People who don’t have money but have the zeal to serve the nation genuinely can hardly get the opportunity to do so now that the impression has been created that so much money is involved,” the CNPP spokesman said.
On the CNPP’s idea of the way out, he said, “we are going to organize an all political parties summit where we will tell the country our stand on all these things as well as what we want done.”
The National Chairman of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Senator Rufa’i Hanga, who responded to the issues around the governorship candidate, expressed optimism over the N200 million legal ceiling.
Hanga said, “Some people complain that the money is too much, but the law does not say that you must spend up to that amount. N200 million is not a red flag, it’s only a guide. Don’t spend more than N200 million, that’s what it says. And you don’t have to spend anything close to that. If you are credible enough in the eyes of Nigerians, they will vote for you even if you have no money to give.”
Chief Solomon Ewuga who started out as a Nasarawa State gubernatorial aspirant in the primaries of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2006, but left to contest the general election under the platform of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), in 2007, said in an interview with Sunday Trust that governorship aspirants do not need as much as N200 million.
He recalled his experience, “The money I spent in the course of seeking to be elected was not such a big amount. In my quest to be elected, from efforts in the PDP to the ANPP, I did not spend up to N150 million. We had people down the grassroots working together. The cost was not too much and what we spent was mostly on logistics. You need to go round to campaign and all that. And look, the process is not too expensive because the cost there is the logistics. All you need to do is to talk to the people, which is the campaign. Huge amounts are only spent when corruption is intended, when it comes to someone who does not win but wants to be declared winner.
PDP NASS RAISED THE BAR TO STOP OTHERS –ANPP BOT Chairman
The Chairman of the Board of Trustees (BOT) of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Alhaji Gambo Magaji, says the allowable maximum electioneering campaign expenses put at N200 million for candidates for the office of governor is too much.
“They have raised the bar to create an unfortunate situation for qualified candidates who may not have much money to compete in the race,” Magaji said.
By the new law, he added, “the PDP which has the majority in the National Assembly, has set a barrier between themselves and other Nigerians who lack the money and influence, so that they can continue to manipulate the country’s resources.”
The new law on limits to spending requires INEC to collaborate with political parties to get all donations and campaign expenses of all candidates audited and submitted to INEC for necessary action.
Offering suggestions on how this might be done efficiently, Solomon Ewuga said, “I want to repeat that in a free and fair polls, expenses are low. INEC must have its own policing system independent of what the parties have so that it can check expenses by the politicians. You don’t set a standard and not pursue it. So, they must have an enforcement system that will address this properly.”
In his submission on the new rule governing campaign spending, the Executive Director, Human Rights Monitor, Barr Festus Okoye, describes it as a controversial one. He said, “the issue of campaign financing is very contentious. It is also difficult to enforce. Ours is a cash economy and this has been exploited to commit criminal and illegal acts. People have also been known to cause others to spend these monies on their behalf.”
Okoye who is a practising lawyer said in response to the question of whether or not some candidates may feel that attempts to make them disclose what they spend amounts to probing their privacy, declaring that the new law must be appreciated for what it is – a law. He said, “the law is the law and it will not violate the fundamental rights of the candidates to enforce it.”
He spoke of how to enhance the implementation of the law: “The electoral management body (INEC) must develop the tools to monitor the candidates. Civil society groups and organisations must also double efforts to monitor the spending limits of candidates. This is really where the EFCC and ICPC come in. If they do their work well, it will be difficult for the candidates to engage in a spending spree. The tragedy of our circumstance is that people regard electioneering as a bazaar and wait anxiously for it. Candidates are ready to spend anything because they can recoup after elections through barefaced stealing.”
INEC, from which much is expected, says it is set for the business of conducting credible elections, including monitoring the spending of political parties and candidates.
Kayode Idowu, the Chief Press Secretary to INEC boss, Attahiru Jega, told Sunday Trust that INEC will be diligent in applying the relevant sections and clauses of the new electoral law to sanitize campaigns and disbursement of funds.
“We will act in conformity with the provisions of the law to check electoral corruption which includes deploying money to influence patronage,” Idowu said, adding that, “we have the legal framework now. We will explore it to deal with all corrupt cases. We know very well that credible elections include curtailing unethical spending and we are committed to deliver credible elections.
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