Dr. Betta Edu, national Women Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has explained why the party pegged its presidential nomination form at N100 million.
She said it was to shoot out serious aspirants and prevent form syndication.
The party at its emergency extraordinary National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting in Abuja on Wednesday announced N100m for the purchase of presidential nomination forms, the governorship form at N50m, Senate N20 million, House of Representatives, N10 million, and House of Assembly for N2 million.
Shedding light on the cost of the forms, APC National Women Leader on ‘Good Morning Show’ on ARISE News Channel on Thursday in Abuja said it was a mechanism by the National Working Committee (NWC) to curtail the activities of some people who obtain forms just to constitute a hindrance in the entire electoral process.
According to her: “Everywhere around the world, running for elections has never been cheap and the party must be able to have means to guard several other issues that may arise.
“You find people who are not interested in running for elections just standing up, picking up forms and just waiting to constitute a kind of barrier or put a sturdy in the entire process as it goes on.
“These are not things that we want to see as a party. We are the ruling party, the largest party in Africa, a party where if you pick their nomination form and you are the candidate, the probability of you becoming the elected person for that position is almost a hundred percent.
“So, we cannot afford to dabble or joke around or gamble around. So, we want only serious people who are interested in running and representing different persons to run.”
She also justified the cost of forms for the House of Assembly aspirants at N2m.
According to her: “For all we care, N1.5 million for a House of Assembly nomination form is fair to the general population. It’s very fair and for women, it’s free, for disabled, it is free; for young people, it is 50 percent off, that’s very fair.
“And of course, going for the other positions, we know what it was before and what it is now and we are trying to prevent certain persons who sometimes are not the members of the party.
“They just get their way in or they’re being used as syndicates to pick up forms at the beginning to constitute a kind of clog in the way of the whole electoral process and they pull the party backward.”
When challenged that over 98 percent of Nigerians cannot boast of N500,000 in their bank accounts in the face of the high cost of the party’s nomination fee, the woman leader noted governorship and presidential elections are not all-comers affairs.
“So, let me say this and say that very clearly. Coming to run for a governorship election is not an all-comers affair.
“Governorship election is serious business, for you to run through all the local governments, consult people, reach out to people and indeed be able to campaign through the local governments requires a good amount of resources.
“And when you make up your mind that you want to run, you should be able to prepare adequately for that race.
“Beyond that, there are many ways for young people to generate funding for elections. It must not be your money and they are not paying the same amount others are paying.”
