The Centre for Social Justice, Tuesday claimed that the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) spent N11.66bn to finance the 2015 presidential election.
Lead Director, CSJ, Eze Onyekpere, a lawyer, gave the figure while releasing a report on the campaign finance and the use of state administrative resources in the 2015 presidential election.
The report stated that out of the N11.66bn, the PDP spent the highest amount with N8.75bn representing 75 per cent, while the APC spent N2.91bn on its presidential campaign.
The report stated that “the N11.6bn is the amount that can be empirically verified” by the group, adding that this figure was conservative as there were other expenditures that were within the knowledge of the candidates which the group could not have access to.
Giving a breakdown of the amount spent, Onyekpere said the PDP spent N1.28bn on campaigns and rallies while the APC spent N671.06m
For billboards, he said the PDP spent N473.16m, the APC N190.38m; while N532.1m and N410m were spent by the PDP and the APC respectively on electronic media campaign.
Other campaign expenses include electronic media advertisement over which the PDP spent N3.98bn and the APC N1.06bn; and print media campaign which saw the PDP spending N2.47bn and the APC N579.6m.
The amount spent by both parties, according to the group, was higher than the N1bn ceiling fixed by the Independent National Electoral Commission for presidential candidates.
However, Onyekpere said from the group’s analysis, there were evidence which showed that the ceiling of N1bn for candidates to finance presidential election would not be enough and should be reviewed to about N5bn.
He said, ‘The failure of INEC to delimit the amount of money an individual or organisation can donate to a political party was also an issue in the election.
“This provided a leeway for an open regime on donations to the parties.
“The ceiling of N1bn for candidates in a presidential election should be upwardly reviewed to N5bn. This is based on observed and necessary expenses to mount a viable campaign for the presidency.
“The review to N5bn should not be contained in the body of the Electoral Act. Rather, the Act should be amended and the power to determine the ceiling across all the elections should be given to INEC.”
The group, in the report, recommended that penalties for spending in excess of the ceiling should be increased to not less than a fine of 50 per cent of the value of the excess expenditure.
The terms of imprisonment, it added, should also be increased to not less than two years and a debarment from participation in politics for a period of two years.
The report also recommended that donations to candidates and political parties should be made tax-deductible, up to a maximum limit of the N1m ceiling for individual donations to candidates.
It said, “The Electoral Act should provide for a compulsory collaboration between government agencies, such as the Federal Inland Revenue Service, INEC and anti-corruption agencies, to determine the source of funds donated to candidates and political parties.
“Also, donors should be followed up by FIRS to verify their tax payment to the treasury.”
The report advocated the creation of a new agency to oversee campaign finances, adding that the agency should be empowered to seize the deployment of funds that contravened the laws.
