N1 Trillion Spent for 2015 elections – INEC

An estimated N1 trillion was spent by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, political parties and candidates for the 2015 elections. 

This was revealed it was revealed, yesterday at a two-day Learning Conference on the Regional Cost of Politics, immediately drew strong disapprovals from concerned stakeholders with assertions that the high cost was the bedrock of the corruption that pervades the political system.

Vanguard reports that among those who flayed the high cost of elections were legislators, Dr. Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, President of the Transition Monitoring Group, TMG and Mr. Ibrahim Musa, Executive Director of the Civil Society Advocacy and Legislative Centre, CISLAC. Some in the House of Representatives, however, described the high figure as provided by INEC as unrealistic as they put the blame on civil servants, who they claimed, inflate the cost of elections to their benefit.

It was revealed at the conference that the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, expended N8.74 billion in traceable media and other related expenses in the 2015 elections while all the other opposition parties expended N2.91 billion for similar activities. Chief Technical Adviser to the INEC Chairman, Prof. Bolade Eyinla disclosed at the opening of the conference organised by the Westminster Foundation for Democracy that the “core cost” of the election as represented by expenditure by the commission and related institutions was $547 million, while total cost, including expenses by political parties and their candidates, was between $1.5 billion and $2 billion.

“In the last general elections in Benin Republic, the core cost was $15 million, and then you had a candidate who, alone, spent about $32 million. “In Nigeria, our core cost was $547 million. It is perhaps the most expensive elections that we have ever seen. I have seen figures somewhere of between $1.5 billion to $2 billion and believe me; it is true if we knew what happened. In one scandal, we heard of $115 million”, he said. Eyinla also disclosed that 75 political associations have now applied to INEC for registration as political parties, saying existing laws do not give INEC the latitude to restrict the political space to fewer parties.

(Vanguard)