BENJAMIN OMOIKE
The ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), has realised over N30 billion from sales of expression of interest and nomination forms to aspirants seeking to contest elective offices on the platform of the party ahead of the 2023 general elections.
Calculations have revealed that APC received over N30 billion from sales of forms to over 4,000 Presidential, Governorship, Senatorial, House of Representatives and House of Assembly aspirants.
According to APC Organising Secretary, Suleiman Argungun, the party has 28 Presidential aspirants and 145 Gubernatorial aspirants, as well as 351 Senatorial and 1,197 House of Representatives aspirants respectively. Though APC didn’t give accurate numbers of House of Assembly aspirants across the 36 states, investigation has shown that over 2,500 members of the party members collected nomination and expression of interest forms for state assembly seats.
For the 28 presidential aspirants, made up of 27 male which paid N100 million for expression of interest and nomination forms at N30 million and N70 million respectively, the party got N2.7 billion, while the only female candidate may have paid N50 million, which is 50 percent of the forms- in line with the party’s consideration for women and youths.
Therefore, APC realised about N2.75 billion from the presidential forms.
With 145 aspirants in 29 states obtaining APC governorship expression of interest and nomination forms at N50 million, it is expected that the party raised about N6.75 billion from sales of governorship forms, considering that some of the aspirants are female, who didn’t pay the same amount as their male counterparts.
Of the 351 senatorial aspirants for 109 seats in the Upper Chamber of the National Assembly, especially male aspirants, who bought the expression of interest and nomination forms at N20 million, it is expected that the ruling party got about N6.5 billion from the senatorial aspirants, considering that few of them are female.
With the majority of the 1,197 House of Representatives aspirants for the 360 seats in the Green Chamber coughing out N10 million for expression of interest and nomination forms, and female aspirants obtaining the form at a reduced price, APC is expected to have raised about N9.5 billion from those seeking to represent their constituents in the Lower Chamber of the National Assembly.
Though APC didn’t give an accurate number of House of Assembly aspirants, over 2,500 aspirants, using an average of 50 and 70 aspirants respectively for some of the 36 states in Nigeria, would have paid for the party’s expression of interest and nomination forms, sold at the rate of N2 million.
Therefore, APC raised about N4.75 billion from the House of Assembly aspirants.
