N100m For Presidential Forms: APC Prepares Next President To Steal

By Comfort Obi

Nigerians should watch out. A red flag has been put up for them. Warning bells are ringing. And, it is time to shine their eyes. Our leaders are waving the stealing banner at us. And they are doing that brazenly.

If the next President of Nigeria in 2023 comes from the  All Progressives Congress, APC, his Party has indirectly, asked him to steal from day one in office. The Party has asked him to embark on a stealing spree. It has given him a shirt, soaked in corruption to wear. It has asked him to immediately do something to recoup every kobo spent on his journey to office.

Here is why.

The APC  under the leadership of its National Chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, on Wednesday, April 20, 2022, pegged the cost for the Presidential office at an unprecedented sum of N100m. Here is the breakdown:

*N30m for expression of interest form.

*N70m for the nomination form.

The APC is the ruling party in Nigeria. Muhammadu Buhari, the man who says he  abhors corruption and ostentatious life style is the President of Nigeria. And forget that Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is, usually, referred to as the National Leader of the Party, it is a mockery. Not true. The tag is meant to humor him.

The real and maximum National Leader of the Party is President Buhari The Party does what he wants. What he directs. What he dictates. Examples abound.

He asked the APC to sack Adams Oshiomhole, its National Chairman. Oshiomhole was sacked. And  that’s inspite of Oshiomhole’s relationship with Tinubu. He was not only sacked, the President shifted the meeting which sacked him to the Presidential Villa. Not the Party Secretariat. Tinubu could do nothing. He only sulked.

The President set-up  the Governor Mai Mala Buni Interim Committee to run the affairs  of the Party, principally to organise National Convention. The Committee was there for a long time. Nobody complained.

When some “rascals” in the Party cried foul, and moved to sack the Committee, they felt they had the President’s blessing. At least, one of them, Kaduna State Governor, Nasir  El-Rufai was on National Television, and told us the President  ordered them to sack Buni.

In far away London where he had gone to take care of his health, the President had a change of mind. He pulled the rug from under El-Rufai and company, and ordered: “Buni stays.” He topped his order by chiding El-Rufai and Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, who in an unprecedented press statement, called his fellow Governors, who preached due process in the Buni issue, Yahoo- yahoo Governors. There was no “pim” again.

For the National Convention, the President picked Senator Adamu, former Nasarawa State Governor, as the National Chairman. And inspite of Adamu’s alleged baggage, and Tinubu’s alleged preference for Senator George Akume, former Benue State Governor and Buhari’s Minister, Mr President had his way. So, everybody knows who the real National leader of the  Party is. Even Tinubu knows.

I brought this aspect up as a proof that there is nothing the National leadership of the Party does without the approval of the President.

However, on the pegging of the Presidential aspiration form at N100m, I find it hard to believe that Buhari, who couldn’t buy his own form in 2015, (he said he took a bank loan) approved of it. Again here is why.

This President swept into office, in 2015, waving the anti-corruption banner. He said he was coming to clean the augean stable. But if this pegging of the form at N100m is not an encouragement for corruption, I don’t know what is.

If it is not an endorsement of stealing, I don’t know what is. When one spends this huge sum on forms alone, in addition to what one would spend on reaching out to delegates, in addition to what one will spend at the Primary, in addition to what one will spend when one becomes the candidate, then, one has been handed over a license   to go ahead, steal, and recoup your money if one becomes the President. Even a saint, and please, there is no Saint in politics, will do that. It is a license for corruption.

And worse.

I have looked at the APC Presidential aspirants,and “wanna bes” and I don’t know how many of them who can afford the sum of N100m. Only a couple of them can COMFORTABLY do that from their personal pocket unless they had stolen and/or are stealing. So, what  this homogeneous price tag is likely to do, is to disenfranchise a number of the aspirants.

For instance, Minister for Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has always said he had no money. He always says he does not like money. Where,  in the world,  will he get the sum of N100m to squander on an aspiration form? There are Dr Chris Ngige and Senator Ken Nnamani too, in this all- comers affair. There are, also, the Governors of Kogi State and Ebonyi State, Yahaya  Bello and Dave Umahi. Bello was a civil servant before luck shone on him in politics. I understand, he too is now billionaire. As for Umahi, the one who says he  became a billionaire at age 25, a time he barely was through with his Youth Service, will they dare it when many people think they are on a wild goose chase?  This price tag is likely to put off others who had set their eyes on the seat. There is Ekiti State Governor, for example. Will he still dare?

Perhaps only Vice President Yemi Osinbajo (he had about nine times more than that before he became the VP), Tinubu, Senators Okorocha and Orji Kalu can effortlessly afford this price tag. Others, I don’t know. And let nobody tell us the form was purchased for him by one group or the other. It is wayo!

Here’s what I expect President Buhari to do. He should put a halt to the N100m tag placed on his chair. He should cancel it. Here we were, screaming about PDP’s N40m tag, and APC, a Party which says it is fighting corruption, puts its own N60m higher than that.

Mr President, this  N100m ridicules you, your integrity and everything you have ever stood for against  corruption. It is a licence to steal, a licence to wear corruption as a shirt.

Don’t let it stick.

As usual, interfere. Intervene.

Obi is the Editor-in-Chief/CEO of The Source (Magazine), https://thesourceng.com. Email: [email protected], [email protected]