Young PDP presidential aspirant petitions party over cost of nomination forms

A Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential aspirant, Ayoola Falola, has petitioned the party over what he described as biased, unjust and high cost of nomination forms approved by its National Executive Committee (NEC) for the 2023 general elections.

The Oyo State politician, in his mid 30’s, made this known through a communiqué he issued to Nigerian Tribune.

The communiqué was copied to the national legal adviser and the national youth leader of his party, and also to the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

According to him, the nomination form fees are unjustly used to ensure that only the rich get the nominations, especially for the presidential primaries, which contravenes the aims and objectives of the party as enshrined in its constitution, in Section 7, subsection 2g.

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“I strongly believe that a political party in a country with a per capita income of US$2300 (954,500 naira) should not peg any of its nomination forms for about US$95000 (about 40 million naira).

“The inconsistency with the financial realities in Nigeria suggests that the fees are either a crowd-control mechanism or an unjust way to encourage oligarchy,” he said.

He stated that using form fees as a crowd-control mechanism is against the Nigerian constitution, which the PDP ought to uphold. 

He further stated that chapter 2, section 15, subsection 2 of the Nigerian constitution enshrines the political objectives of Nigeria, which states, “Accordingly, national integration shall be actively encouraged, whilst discrimination on the grounds of place of origin, sex, religion, status, ethnic or linguistic association or ties shall be prohibited.”

He lamented that this prohibits the use of (social or financial) status as a way of crowd-control in Nigerian public affairs.

Falola noted that in all democracies of the world he sampled, even those with better financial situation of their citizen, political parties do not charge US$95000 for party nominations.

“The question is, where did we get the audacity to empower oligarchy this way? Could this be a deliberate attempt to keep only a certain set of people in the corridors of power?” he lamented.

He called for the removal of all nomination and expression of interest form fees, or for their reduction, which is consistent with the financial situation in Nigeria.

“This communiqué also serves as a pre-action notice to approach a court of competent jurisdiction should appropriate administrative remedies and justice are denied,” he said.