Election fund: Buhari’s directive, a major step Nigerians are yearning for ― Group

A group, Civil Society Network Against Corruption (CSNAC), on Thursday applauded the directive issued by President Muhammadu Buhari that his ministers must ensure that none of them uses government money to fund the 2019 elections, saying it was a major step and exactly what Nigerians too were yearning for.

Chairman of the group, Comrade Olanrewaju Suraj, said this while speaking with Tribune Online, even as he noted that the presidential directive was exactly what the law says and, therefore, the need for the government to monitor and ensure compliance and not allow the infractions to happen.

“Yes, I think this is exactly what Nigerians too are yearning for and this is going to be a very major one for us, it is the law. The presidential directive should not end like that. It should be taken to the level where we monitor and ensure that we don’t allow this to happen.

“The president doesn’t need to give the directive, it is in the law that you can’t use public fund to fund whatever campaign activities because every aspirant is considered in law as just an aspirant and not because you are occupying an office,” he said.

Suraj, who is also the Chairman of Human and Environment Development Agenda (HEDA), however, said not only that the directive be operated at the Federal level, state governors and officials too should be made to follow suit, just as he insisted that Nigerians had a role to play to ensure that public funds were not used for election campaigns.

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“So not only at the Federal level where you are saying ministers shouldn’t do it, the state governors, the state officials shouldn’t do it and Nigerians are the only ones that can make sure that it doesn’t happen.

“So we should hold the government by this, we should monitor and see wherever we can link any of the public office holders and even contractors that are benefiting from government contracts funding the campaigns and at the end of the elections, we should also demand from INEC the report from political parties on how much was used for elections. This is because that is provided under the Act and is meant to be submitted to INEC six months after the elections,” he said.

Speaking further, Suraj said he would like to take President Buhari by his words, maintaining that the directive by him was a good step in the right direction.

“I actually take people by their words and I give them the benefit of the doubt. So for me, it’s actually a good step in the right direction for us to then hold him by his words and ensure that people around him are not allowed to stray from what he has given as instruction.

“We need to also remind him and his officials that it is not just presidential directive, it is actually the law. We need to find a way of holding them responsible and people who benefit from such a process should also be deprived of that benefits.

“So Nigerians should actually take them up where we can link that public funds were used to support the electoral process of any candidate. We should go and challenge it and say that candidate should be withheld or revoked,” he said.