By Kenechukwu Ofomah, Awka
There is a need for all political campaign finance regulatory agencies to deploy all relevant instruments of the law to effectively regulate expenditure by politicians and political parties during electioneering campaigns.
This, according to Human Rights Activist and Civic Participation Advocate, Umar Dan’Assabe Muhammed, will help address the challenges of corruption, self-aggrandisement, and greed by politicians while in public office.
Sections 88 to 90 of the Electoral Act 2022, provide for a threshold for spending for candidates during elections in Nigeria.
However, trends have shown that politicians far exceed those thresholds, resulting in their abandoning the people when they assume office, to recoup the outrageous sums they expended during campaigns.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with TNC correspondent in Awka, the rights activist, Umar regretted that both the regulatory agencies and the financial enforcement agencies are not up and doing in their responsibilities.
This, he noted, has led to the monetization of Nigerian politics, resulting in the emergence of public office holders who have no agenda for the well-being of the people.
Umar noted with disdain, how politicians no longer meet the electorate to sell their manifestos during the campaign period, but stash away huge sums of money with which to buy votes on the election day.
He emphasized the need for the regulatory agencies such as the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC and the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit, NFIU, to start deploying the instruments of the law to regulate campaign expenditure.
“The essence is to ensure that we do not monetize our politics, and it becomes something that no longer interrogates capacities and the manifestos of candidates, but rather who can muscle the most amount of money.
“We are currently battling ,vote-buying and we saw that in Edo and Ondo off-cycle elections. We have come to discover that our ballots are now for sale.
“The Electoral Act provides about 5 months for campaigns and this is enough time for the politicians to reach out to the people to sell their manifestos. But, politicians no more campaign to the people so that the people will see their manifestoes and have something tangible to hold them accountable when they become elected. Instead, they reserve every resource and energy for the election day to buy votes. And this is worrisome.
“So INEC must start scrutinizing the financial records of the political parties,” he noted.
Umar, who is also the Program Manager, Election, of the Kimpact Development initiative, KDI, revealed that the political finance project of the KDI aims to scrutinize the fiscal campaign expenditures of all the political parties participating in the Anambra Governorship Election.
According to him, the project is aimed at empowering key stakeholders to track, monitor and report campaign expenditures.
This, he noted, is targeted at holding the political class accountable.
“Remember, the more you spend, the more you are likely to steal public funds because you will want to recoup your money.
”Effective political campaign finance regulation will also create a fair playing field for all political candidates in an election. This will also prevent the incumbent from dipping hands into the coffers of the state to prosecute personal campaigns,” he said.
The civic participation advocate further noted that the electorate has a great role to play, by demanding the right actions from the politicians, if they observe that they are not campaigning.
He said, “Start engaging using social media to make your voices heard. We must also begin to reject these monies meant to buy our conscience during the electioneering period.
“When the country is able to effectively manage political financing, it positively affects free and fair elections, effective governance, democracy, and corruption.
“When the electorate accepts monetary offers from politicians, they lose the right to demand good governance.”
