When you have a people that are addicted to falsehood and hypocrisy, that is what they will always get – everyone knows Presidential Campaigns cost Billions of Naira yet no one wants to discuss how they are funded – and as always, the scapegoat must be the PDP – very convenient!
We all know how “Osun became a Poor State” – we all know how “LGAs in Lagos are tasked by Bourdillon to fund elections in other states” – and we all know “How certain front companies are given contracts by State governments to turn the monies around on the rainy day to fund elections” – yet “The PDP is always the culprit!” Crap!
I have in the time past done two Op-eds on “Campaign Finance in the United States” and the sort of examples Nigerians can draw from such – why not place a total ban on “Public Sector Funding of all candidates/campaigns” or restrict same to a limited amount – and have the candidate seek its funds from well-wishing people from the public or more importantly private individuals and companies who believe in such candidates/parties?
Why not have INEC/CBN, etc administer this process as the Federal Election Commission [FEC] does in the US – you donate to a campaign as an individual or Companies or NGO or Political Action Committee [PAC] and have such records published on the website of INEC as FEC does while every candidate/campaign opens its books to the public?
Oh, I get it – I am going to be told “this won’t work in Nigeria” – Of course, nothing ever seems to work in Nigeria until such works – recall how some people said “GSM couldn’t work in Nigeria?” And then again, when it also seems to work, the same Nigerians that complain to stupor also turn out to the ones to ridicule the process – recall the Campaign Donations that was done on Live TV by the GEJ campaign – remember how it ended up being used to blackmail himself and the campaign?
Well, there you have it – Nigerians like to tell you “they want A” but once you give them A, they soon tell you “It is B that we actually need” – and rather than use this opportunity to correct a problem that would definitely occur again in 2019, they would rather stick to this “PDP don chop our money finish” lingo.
This would then bring me to the question of “How much exactly did the Buhari/Osinbajo campaign spend on the polls and what were the sources of these funds they used in running same? How do they intend to fund the 2019 campaign as well?
Favour Afolabi is a political commentator who runs fbablogs.com in his spare time; and owns a real estate brokerage services company. He tweeted from @favourafolabi.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
