The recent Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Fund-Raising Dinner held at Presidential Villa, Abuja, in aid of President Goodluck Jonathan campaign effort expectedly generated sundry donations worth N21.27 billion. The amount was donated by some named Nigerians and their friends, state governments, some agencies and some named sectors of the economy. It should not have been otherwise. Political party campaigns, the world over, are funded by individuals, friends and bodies that share in the party’s ideals and aspirations.
Since the event, which is solely a political party affair, took place, it has elicited so many reactions by members of the public and the main opposition All Progressives Congress (APC). Ordinarily, such an event should not attract the kind of opprobrium and condemnations it had attracted so far if not that in this part of the world, which we inhabit everything is viewed from the prism of partisanship. It should not always be so. We should learn the art of constructive criticism even in our politics. If an action does not violate any known law, shouting to the rooftops of evil not committed appears hysterical and unnecessary.
At the heat of the uproar, some commentators have described the outcome of the event in bad colours and demanded the identities of those “friends” and those behind the various sectors that doled out the whopping campaign fund. Besides, some critics want to know the tax history of the donors, as if some of the donors have been serial tax evaders. They also want the donors to be investigated by the anti-corruption agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Some commentators even want the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to prosecute the PDP and those that donated the money while some want the Police to do the same. The seeming confusion over which agency will prosecute the “offenders” shows that the “crime” cannot be pinned down.
In all the accusations, none of the critics has pointed out the infraction of any extant laws committed either by the DPD, the President or the donors who doled out the money alongside their friends. As far as I know, there is no law in Nigeria that sets a limit to amount a political party can raise in its fund raising dinner. A political party is at liberty to raise any amount of money that donors are willing to part with. All donated money remains the money of the party.
The party has the right to disburse it the way it deems fit. What the extant Electoral Act 2010 stipulated is the limit to the amount a presidential candidate can spend in his campaign, which was put at a billion naira. For example, Section 92(2) of the Electoral Act 2010 states clearly that “the maximum election expenses to be incurred by a candidate at a presidential election shall be N1 billion.” Has this provision been violated? The answer is in the negative. The critics should wait and see if President Jonathan will spend above the one billion naira mark as stipulated in the extant Electoral Act.
Except he does that, those shouting themselves hoarse as if their lives depend on he campaign fund, have no basis for such a waste of energy and time. They should find something worthwhile than to spend their time and energy shouting wolf where none exists. Apart from the presidential election, the PDP has other elections it will fund from the raised money like the governorship, National and State assembly polls that it has numerous candidates to fund and support. Thank goodness, some commentators adduced that that provision has been overtaken by the realities on the ground. For instance, a billion naira at the time of the Act cannot be said to be of commensurate value today.
The amount political parties spend on campaigns these days, in view of high cost of adverts, outdoors, print and electronic, cannot be said to be within the limits set in the Electoral Act. For avoidance of doubt, democracy anywhere in the world gulps lots of money especially during elections. It gulps so much money if it is the presidential system of government, especially the type we hurriedly borrowed from the United States without first understudying how it works. Ask anybody how much it costs to vie for local government chairman election alone.
The answer will show you how much governorship and other higher posts including the presidential election will cost? How much did the political parties sell their nomination forms recently? All of them shouting over an innocuous party fund raising should be honest enough to tell Nigerians how much they have spent so far in their campaigns. There is no pretence about it, democracy is monetized and the type we practise is monetized heavily because politics to us is an investment. In fact, it is fast becoming the most viable business in Nigeria and some politicians refer to politics as their occupation and career. It was reported that during the recently concluded APC presidential primaries in Lagos that there were dollar rains that some delegates smiled home with $10,000 each doled by a particular presidential aspirant.
Does that amount to any infraction? Lawyers supply the answer quickly. There may be other dollar rains that escaped being reported even among other political parties’ primaries that took place recently in different parts of the country. If the truth should be told, Nigerians will be shell-shocked on the amount of money spent by some of our politicians to fund their political parties. If such is revealed, what happened at the PDP fund raising will just be a tip of the iceberg. If the PDP raised so much billions, it is their private affair. Other parties can raise their own campaign funds the way they deem fit. Making a mountain out of a mole hill over the PDP fund raising is akin to making much ado over nothing. All those shouting themselves deaf are just moralizing and not speaking on point of law. Their case has no legal basis and it is very strange to any known law in the country.
Since ours is an emerging democracy that is still evolving, I advise that critics learn how fund raising is done abroad, especially in the US from where we borrowed the extant democratic system of government. In doing so, let them be abreast of laws that guide such practice in each country. Although there is no uniformity between the US laws and the Nigerian laws on party fund raising, the understanding of the workings of such fund raising in the US will be of great relief to the modern day morality critics of PDP fund raising. In all, the PDP did not commit any crime in its fund raising.