Accountability Lab Tasks INEC On 5bn Campaign Ceiling For Presidential Election

A global anti-corruption organisation, Accountability Lab Nigeria has tasked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to ensure that the election expenses of candidates did not exceed the limits prescribed in the Electoral Act 2022.

Basically, Section 88 (2) of the new electoral act stipulates that the maximum election expenses to be incurred by a candidate at a presidential election should not exceed N5 billion.

The country director of Accountability Lab Nigeria, Friday Odeh, disclosed this at the 2022 Integrity Icons.

Those who were rewarded worked across the sectors of procurement, justice, and law enforcement. They are Charles Enuma, Innocent Ayabotu, Mohammed Babayola, Mwalin Abdu, and Victoria Barnabas.

He wondered why politicians would spend beyond the stipulated N5 billion benchmark instructed by INEC for campaigns.

Odeh said: “Campaign funds have been tagged by INEC as N5 billion but you find out that people are donating and spending above N5 billion.

“For me, the thing is who is going to build strong institutions that can stand and deliver on their mandate and carry out the course in which they were established.

“If INEC can stand strong we will not have political parties spending above N5 billion. The new Electoral Act provides for every political party to produce a report of their campaign spending after the election.

“I think only a few political parties were able to do that in 2015. In the 2019 elections, we are not even seeing any of the political parties doing so, which is basically a big problem.”

He said Integrity Icons is a campaign to find, celebrate and support honest government officials to change the narrative around corruption and build coalitions for reform.

Odeh said a lack of integrity – which leads to corruption, inequality, and insecurity remained a global challenge, targeted at destroying the country.

The country director expressed worry that none of the political candidates in the 2023 presidential election put accountability at the forefront of their campaigns.

At the event, former Statistician-General, Yemi Kale recalled how he defended his statistics on poverty, health economy among others even though they were not favourable to the federal government.

This is even as he encouraged citizens to be upright in their dealings for the betterment of the country, whether rewarded or not.

The former statistician-general also recalled how he left office.

He said his tenure was announced two months before the expiration in the press.

Kale said when he complained about the mode of announcement of his replacement, despite having two months to serve, he said some persons asked him to continue in office till the expiration of his tenure.

But according to him, he declined and left the office, adding that he had no regrets leaving two months before the end of his tenure.