The upward review of the Expression of Interest and Nomination Forms by the All Progressives Congress (APC), has suffered a setback as President Muhammadu Buhari has told the National Working Committee members of the party that N55 million is too high for him.
The President had four years ago complained over the N27.5 million nomination forms for the Presidential ticket and had argued that if he had his way, he would have ensured downward review of the fees.
But the National Working Committee of the APC has reviewed the nomination forms upward to the tune of N55 million. While the Presidential Nomination form goes for N50 million, the Expression of Interest Form costs N5 million.
A member of the National Executive Committee of the party told the newsmen in an exclusive interview that the President “has complained to the party that he could not afford it”
The NEC source said that the President had told the NWC members that he was a salary earner, therefore he does not have such money to purchase the nomination forms of the party”
Also reviewed upward are the cost of nomination forms for the governorship, senatorial, House of Representatives and State House of Assembly forms.
For the APC governorship ticket, the party reviewed the nomination forms from N5.5 million to N22.5 million, senatorial ticket from N3.3 million to N8.5 million, House of Representatives from N2.2 million to N6.5 million and state House of Assembly from N550, 000 to N1.1 million.
The members of the Not-to-Young-to-Run in APC have vowed to protest the high cost of nomination forms.
Mr. Jide Ola, who spoke to newsmen, said the high cost of the nomination forms was another method to keep the youths from contesting elective positions.
He wondered how youths that can afford N1.1 million to purchase the State House of Assembly forms, not to talk of federal legislature tickets.
The governor of Plateau State, Simon Lalong, had told the media that the National Executive Committee (NEC) had told the NWC to review the cost of the nomination forms downward.
Lalong, responding to the question on the high cost of nomination forms said: “We debated the cost of nomination and left it to the National Working Committee to take into consideration some of the views expressed and come out with a reasonable figure and any figure they bring out will be acceptable and we don’t need to come back to NEC to ratify it.”
