BY JACOB BRIGHT
As more contenders and pretenders continue to jostle for political relevance and vie for the hallowed seat of the office of the Nigerian president, a common denominator consistent with most aspirants is the purchase of their respective party’s presidential nomination and expression of interest forms by support groups or proxies.
This practice of buying nomination forms for candidates became popular and overwhelmingly engrafted into the consciousness of Nigeria’s political elite and those they govern during the period of President Buhari’s second term aspiration as president was unfolding.
In 2018, after his ascendancy into office, news made the rounds that a group, National Consolidation Ambassadors Network, had presented him with the said forms at the presidential Villa to run for a second term in office. With that, many agreed the foundation was laid where proxies could procure forms for their “preferred” candidates. Today, a deluge of Nigerians, or better still, support groups, are unrelenting in their purchase of nomination forms for willing and even unwilling candidates.
It doesn’t stop there, of course. The presidential nomination and expression of interest forms have taken on a life of their own so much so that “intrigues” and “drama” have often accompanied its purchase.
For instance, in 2014, the incumbent president dejectedly told his supporters that he took a bank loan to obtain the N27.5m APC nomination forms so that he could actualise his presidential ambition. He reportedly criticised the amount his party sold the forms and also thanked his unnamed bank manager for making the disbursement of the loan feasible.
“I felt heavily sorry for myself because I don’t want to go and ask somebody to pay for my nomination forms, because I always try to pay myself, at least for the nomination,” Buhari said.
“N27m is a big sum, thankfully I have personal relationship with the manager of my bank in Kaduna and early this morning, I put an early call (and) I told him that very soon the forms are coming, so, whether I am on red, or green or even black please honour it, otherwise I may lose the nomination,” he added.
After the national chairman of the APC at that time, John Odigie-Oyegun, handed the forms to Buhari, he retorted that the amount was meant to “separate men from the boys”. He also said he expected that Nigerians would come through for Buhari to make his ambition a reality.
“Let me say that the N27.5m is to separate the men from the boys. It is quite clear. We know you. I don’t expect you to have N27m under your bed. But I expect that there are Nigerians who will vouch for you any day and who are ready to stand for you any day and that is the result that we have obtained today,” Odigie-Oyegun said.
Fast forward to 2018 when the APC sold its nomination form for N45m. This time, however, Buhari didn’t take another bank loan to offset the cost of the nomination forms. Instead, the aforementioned group, National Consolidation Ambassadors Network, led by its coordinator, Sanusi Musa, said the group had purchased the form for Buhari and compelled him to seek re-election because they couldn’t afford to go back to Egypt or destroy the future of their children.
Addressing party men and women which included national chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, at the helm of affairs, Musa explained that the foundation laid by President Buhari had to be reinforced, and they believed in his leadership (qualities). He added that they counted on the president to consolidate the good work he had started for another four years.
“It is for these reasons we have decided to pull our meagre resources together and purchase the expression of interest and nomination forms for President Buhari as he presents himself to our party members to be chosen as its candidate for the 2019 general election,” he said.
While the leading opposition party, the People’s Democratic Party, fixed the fees for its nomination form for next year’s general election at N40m, Buhari’s party (the APC) sold theirs for N100m.
For this, he was accused of encouraging corruption and double standards.
Interestingly, one aspirant who “dared” to go to the National Secretariat of the APC to pay the required N100m for the nomination form is Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello. The governor who declared his intention to run for the highest political office in the land on April 2 went physically to officially pick up the form. Governor Bello has the distinction of being the first aspirant to pick up the form and has always said he has nothing to hide from anti-graft agencies.
Perhaps, two of the most confusing episodes with the purchase of the nomination form have to do with the ones purchased for the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, and former president, Goodluck Jonathan.
The representatives of the coalition of three groups, viz. rice farmers, friends of Godwin Emefiele and Emefiele support group had obtained the forms for the CBN Governor. However, after the deafening silence by the country’s apex banker, news rolled in that he hadn’t made up his mind whether or not to slug it out with other APC bigwigs for the party’s sole presidential ticket.
After thanking those who bought the forms, he declared that he would buy the forms himself if he eventually decided to throw his hat into the ring as a candidate for the position.
In Jonathan’s case, a coalition of northern groups had obtained the forms for him. Sequel to that, he had told some group of supporters, who thronged his office sometime in March, protesting that he must contest, to “watch out” for unfolding political developments.
In the midst of the furore generated by the forms “purchased” for him, the former president said he had not authorized anyone to procure the forms for him and that it was an “insult on his person” for anybody to buy form for him without his knowledge.
“They have organised a group of people, given those people the money, then those people will announce that they want to pay that person’s nomination fee. It’s all a game to hide the fact that such persons can afford N100 million
“
In an interview with a television station, former Senate President, Ken Nnamani, said the office of the president of the federation was a serious business, and a country as complicated and complex as Nigeria requires someone “who is prepared for the primetime, and not someone being persuaded to run.”
According to Nnamani, it means the person was not ready.
Nnamani who is also contesting to be president on the platform of the APC called those purchasing the forms “shadowy groups”.
He said some of them “appeared to be having difficulty paying their house rents” and enjoined those serious about contesting to go and buy the forms and not send people while claiming reluctance. He described the shadowy groups as “a laughing situation” and “a big lie” which should be discouraged.
In a chat with The Point, legal luminary, Itsay Sagay said the practice of groups buying nomination forms for aspirants was unique to Nigeria and absurd. He opined that the motive behind the groups buying forms for aspirants was to make it seem like the aspirant do not have the funds to obtain the form and escape scrutiny.
“Nigeria is a very unique country. I believe this is probably the only country where you have this sort of thing. It looks absurd to the rest of the world. But if you throw what is behind all these tricks, it is aspiring candidates who do not want to admit that they have the funds, so that nobody will say they have been stashing away money.
“So, they have organised a group of people, given those people the money, then those people will announce that they want to pay that person’s nomination fee. It’s all a game to hide the fact that such persons can afford N100 million.”
Sagay added that it was only Godwin Emefiele, the CBN Governor, who probably had the “legitimate money” to obtain the form.
“They are pretending that they don’t have money. I know the Central Bank man, Godwin Emefiele. I know he has now come out to say he can pay money out of his savings. That is credible because he was also the Managing Director of Zenith Bank before he became the governor of CBN. So, he has a lot of access to legitimate money. Apart from his case, all the others are just a pretense to show that the aspiring candidate doesn’t have funds,” he submitted.
Also sharing his thoughts with The Point, another senior lawyer, Fred Aigbadumah, stated that the idea of purchasing forms for candidates was meant to mislead the people and also a form of plutocracy because of the amount involved.
He said the candidates who claimed that people bought the forms for them actually funded the purchase themselves.
According to Aigbadumah, they did this because they are trying to “cover their faces.”
“It is still the same person that the so-called people that they’re bringing out that are claiming that people are paying for them that are paying that money from their pockets. They’re trying to cover their faces from the EFCC investigation. It’s a subterfuge,” he noted.
Aigbadumah also asserted that except for about two or three of the aspirants who genuinely had people do some fundraising for them, others raised the money “indirectly” using their proxies.
He wondered how the masses who are “struggling to eke out a living in this type of economy” would in all sincerity raise that kind of money.
“They’re using the masses as cover or canon fodder which the masses have always been. It’s now taken to a very egregious level this time around,” he said.
Asked whether there should be a law that would stop proxies from obtaining nomination forms for aspirants, Aigbadumah said the law actually grants people the freedom of expression.
According to him, etching the concept of independent candidacy into the constitution would address the situation.
“That is the law (freedom of expression) and you also know that it is actually party affairs. But what will even stop all these is to make room for independent candidates. To me, that’s the ultimate solution,” he concluded.
