Human rights advocate, Femi Falana (SAN) has condemned the cost of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) nomination forms.
The APC and PDP had fixed the cost of their presidential nomination forms at N100 million and N40 million respectively.
Over the past few days, the cost of expression of interest and nomination forms of the two political parties in the country, particularly that of the APC, has attracted widespread criticism.
Speaking on the development, Falana in a statement on Sunday, April 24, described the actions of both political parties as a mockery of the Not Too Young To Run Bill signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2018.
“By asking the young people to pay N60 million (being 40 percent discount off the said N100 million), the APC has made a mockery of the Not Too Young to Run Act enacted by the Federal Government under its control. It is undoubtedly clear that the N100 million deposit fixed by APC for its presidential aspirants has excluded the majority of the alleged 40 million members of the party from participating in the party primary elections,” the Senior Advocate of Nigeria wrote.
Arguing that it is insensitive to fix N100m for presidential form when the minimum wage is N30,000, Falana noted that the outrageous nomination fees are immoral and illegal, and stated that they should be cancelled.
“Since the national minimum wage is N30,000 per month, the deposit of N100 million or N60 million has excluded millions of workers from contesting the presidential election in Nigeria. Even retired professors, judges, and permanent secretaries are not in a position to pay the deposit demanded by the APC and PDP from their meagre pension. Ironically, Nigeria houses the second largest population of poor people in the world but the nomination fees collected from aspirants by APC and PDP are the highest in the world,” he stressed.
“Therefore, as political parties are incapable to prescribe conditions for the eligibility of candidates outside the provisions of the Constitution the nomination fees of N100 million or N40 million pegged by the APC and PDP respectively are illegal and unconstitutional as they constitute a flagrant violation of sections 40, 106 and 107 of the Constitution as well as article 13(1) of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights Act. The illegal, insensitive, and immoral nomination fees should be cancelled without any further delay.”
Falana reiterated his view in an interview on Channels Television on Thursday, adding that the cost of the nomination forms negates the principle of participatory democracy enshrined in the constitution.
According to him, the outrageous nomination fees is discriminatory, illegal, immoral and the highest in the world.
“Section 14 of the constitution provides for participatory democracy. Article 13 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights provides that every person shall be entitled to participate directly or indirectly in the politics of his or her country.
“Again, section 42 of the Nigerian constitution provides that nobody shall be subjected to any restriction or discrimination on the basis of class, fortune, sex, or whatever.
“If these parties are saying they want to exclude unserious people, that if you cannot mobilise N100 million or N40 million, you cannot attain some positions in your country, that is discriminatory and illegal.
“No restriction can be erected to prevent you from participating in the politics of the country. You are now saying that the politics of the country is for moneybags or fat cats. That is against the spirit and the letters of the constitution.
“The immorality of it is that we have over 90 million Nigerians that have been classified poor. In a country where the minimum wage is about N30,000 and it is not paid by some states, you can’t say you are collecting N100 million or N40 million to purchase a form.
“I have said it publicly but nobody has challenged me. Those fees are the highest in the world.”
