RECENTLY, there has been outrage by Nigerians over the price of Expression of Interest and Nomination forms of major parties like the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to contest in the 2023 general elections.
To become president in the APC, the nomination form will cost that candidate a whooping hundred (100) million naira and in the PDP it will cost the candidate a whooping forty (40) million naira. These prices are truly outrageous and further prove the truth that has been discovered for a long time now; that both parties are the same, and that they only represent the rich and the powerful, and they cannot do anything in the interest of the majority oppressed and poor Nigerians.
Because this truth has been ascertained already, APC or PDP are therefore not the focus of this article. The focus of this article is the radical parties. My focus will be on those parties whose ideas seem to lean towards radical policies, left policies, labour-oriented or socialist policies. Are they truly for the masses? By their policies, we shall know them.
The Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) announced earlier this month that its Expression of Interest form will be sold for five (5) million naira for presidential aspirant, while it will cost eighteen (18) million naira for the Nomination form for president.
Despite the many banters about repositioning the Labour Party by many stakeholders of the organised labour and the struggle between different factions of organised labour to take back control of the party in a radical direction, one is yet to find any information about how the Expression of Interest and Nomination forms of the Labour Party are secured. Neither side of the factions struggling to take charge of the Labour Party has announced any price for contesting on the party’s platform.
For a party that claims to be directly related to the organised labour in the country, it is preposterous and utterly unreasonable to bill tens of millions on nomination forms when the workers are still on thirty (30) thousand naira minimum wage. This is the same party that was once championed by the former Governor of Ondo State, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, who was the only governor elected on the platform of the Labour Party (LP), before the former governor moved back into PDP. This, amongst other things, serves to show that the party is far away from the working people despite its claims as a party of the people.
For a while now, I have also been following the People’s Redemption Party (PRP) and its politics and policies, especially, the struggle between two factions of the party. Earlier this week, the factional struggle of that party reached an interesting point where the radical faction of the party put out a table of comparison to compare the price of nomination forms for both parties.
Interestingly, the ‘capitalist faction’ on that table pegged the price of its nomination and expression of interest forms for presidential aspirants at ten (10) million naira and the ‘socialist faction’ pegged it’s at Five Hundred and Eighty (580) thousand naira.
While the price of ten million naira nomination form stands condemnable, is it not interesting though that a minimum wage worker will need nineteen months’ salary to purchase the nomination and expression of interest form of the “socialist” faction of the PRP? How socialist is that, if the majority minimum wage workers are disenfranchised from contesting? Are the two factions really different philosophically?
Despite the many banters about repositioning the Labour Party by many stakeholders of the organised labour and the struggle between different factions of organised labour to take back control of the party in a radical direction, one is yet to find any information about how the Expression of Interest and Nomination forms of the Labour Party are secured. Neither side of the factions struggling to take charge of the Labour Party has announced any price for contesting on the party’s platform.
But going by my knowledge of candidates who have expressed interest to contest on the platform of the Labour Party, it does not seem like there is a price attached to the nomination and expression of interest to contest in the party, and that’s very commendable too.
The fact that INEC has made it so hard for the radical parties to exist shows that INEC and the cabal around it are the real electoral oppositions of the average Nigerian. The INEC has guidelines on electoral spending, but despite the fact that sub-section 1 of Section 87 of the 2022 Electoral Act declares that “The Commission shall have power to place limitation on the amount of money or other assets which an individual can contribute to a political party or candidate and to demand such information on the amount donated and source of the funds”, the INEC has refused to play its role to limit the amount of these nomination fees which informally forms a contribution by individual candidates to their party.
Another party is African Action Congress (AAC) with the radical faction led by their Presidential aspirant, Omoyele Sowore. The radical faction of the AAC has announced that its Expression of Interest and Nomination forms are free, citing the economic situation in the country as reasons. This is commendable and it is something all well-meaning political parties should embrace.
The big question though is that this is just one policy test that the Sowore-led AAC has managed to pass. What about other policy issues like the ideological and democratic organising of that faction of the party as an example of what the whole AAC should be? Can such methods be the key to the radical faction winning the factional struggle within the AAC?
On this issue, the position I’d favour most is that of the Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN) whose position on this issue exposes the philosophy of capitalist democracy behind this nomination form fees, which is to allow the people to vote by asking them to get their PVCs but then reduce the people that can be voted for to only the few rich. This is the position that shows that making the price of nomination form free is not an issue to be subjected to whether the economy is good or bad, but freedom to be voted for no matter how poor you are is an electoral policy that must be sacrosanct at all times.
The fact that a party like this is one of the parties unjustly deregistered by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) shows that electoral politics is a sham in Nigeria, as all credible alternatives are either deregistered by INEC or factionalised by reactionary factions, whose existence are encouraged by a cabal of INEC leaders.
The fact that INEC has made it so hard for the radical parties to exist shows that INEC and the cabal around it are the real electoral oppositions of the average Nigerian. The INEC has guidelines on electoral spending, but despite the fact that sub-section 1 of Section 87 of the 2022 Electoral Act declares that “The Commission shall have power to place limitation on the amount of money or other assets which an individual can contribute to a political party or candidate and to demand such information on the amount donated and source of the funds”, the INEC has refused to play its role to limit the amount of these nomination fees which informally forms a contribution by individual candidates to their party.
The INEC, instead, prioritises deregistration of political parties of the people which are not wealthy enough to win elections that INEC allowed to be rigged financially already. The only way to explain the fact that INEC has a policy in the Electoral Act which is not being applied is a sign that this INEC, for whatever reasons, lacks the will to lead a free and fair electioneering process in 2023. Our vote is our voice, and so Nigerians want to speak, but INEC is the boot on our necks.
Comrade Ibukun writes from Abuja, Nigeria and can be contacted on 09060277591
