The season many a Nigerian approaches with trepidation is almost here. The political gladiators are already warming up; the parties are rehearsing. Two of them have put up statements. The APC National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka drew attention to the party’s Timetable and Schedule of Activities for 2027 General Elections by its National Organising Secretary, Sulaiman Muhammad Argungu. The schedule spells out timelines for screening of those who are indicating interest and the readiness to fly the party’s flag; appeals that may arise from the screening outcome, primary elections and directives on the sale of nomination and expression of interest forms.
Also featured in the schedule of activities are what prospective candidates are to pay for expression of interest. Those bidding for House of Assembly and House of Representatives, will pay N1 million, and for those interested in the Senate, it is N3 million, for the governorship slot, it is N10 million and for Presidency, N30 million. To collect nomination forms, the candidate going to the House of Assembly will pay N5 million and if the fee for expression of interest is added, all comes to N6 million; for House of Representatives, it is N9 million and when the charge for expression of interest is added, the total is N10 million; Senate is N17 million.
With the expression of interest fee, the total comes to N20 million. For governorship, the nomination form costs N40 million and with the expression of interest fee, the candidate will pay N50 million. The party’s chief flag+bearer who collects the party’s presidential ticket, the nomination will cost him N70 million. When N30 million paid for the expression of interest is added all comes to N100 million. Women, the youths and the physically challenged are given special consideration sparing them the humongous sums of money to pay to the party—the All Progressives Party, APC—putting the sparing charges only mildly.
The footnote that comes with the schedule and the timetable states: ‘Female aspirants, youths and the physically challenged aspirants are to pay for the expression of interest and 50 per cent of the prescribed nomination fees for each position’.
Sale of the forms which is for a week begins tomorrow, Saturday, 25 April and ends the following Saturday, 02 May, 2026. The last day for the submission of the forms and accompanying documents is Monday, 04 May, 2026. Screening of candidates for the State Houses of Assembly, House of Representatives, the Senate, for the governorship is for three days, from Wednesday, 06 May to Friday, 08 May, 2026. The screening of the presidential aspirant is the following day, Saturday 09 May. The publication of the screening results for all the positions is on the same day, Monday, 11 May.
Appeals arising from screening results, again for all the offices will be addressed for two days beginning from Tuesday, 12 May to 13 May, 2026. Primary elections will be from Friday 15 May till Saturday, 22 May beginning with that of the presidential which will be for two days, on the 15th and on the 16th of May, 2026. This will be followed by the House of Representatives, primary election Monday, 18 May, Senate, Wednesday, 20 May; State Houses of Assembly the following day, 21 May and that of the governorship is taking the rear, Saturday, 23 May, 2026. Appeals will run for all the aspirants from Monday, 18 May to Monday, 25 May, starting again with the Presidential, Monday, 18 May; House of Representatives, Wednesday, 20 May; Senate, Thursday, 21 May; State House of Assembly, Thursday, 21 May and governorship, 25 May 2026.
The schedule of activities can be said to be fair. What is mind-blowing is what aspirants are called upon to pay, for the expression of interest as well as to collect nomination forms. For the Presidential candidate altogether comes to N100 million! This excludes travel and campaign expenses! I will come back to this presently.
The People’s Democratic Party, (Nyesom Wike faction), is expecting N51 million from its presidential candidate to pick its nomination form, and from the governorship aspirant, N21 million. Its timetable and schedule of activities are similar to those of the rival APC.
Its presidential primary election is billed for 18 May. All appeals are expected to be concluded by 30 May 2026. The screening will take place between 11 May and 12 May with the presidential taking the rear. The charges for expression of interest and purchase of forms range from N2 million to N3 million (House of Representatives); N5 million (Senate); N20 million (governorship); N50 million (presidential hopefuls). For Houses of Assembly forms aspirants are to pay N2 million. Sales begin on 27 April and end on 04 May with the submission deadline of the forms fixed for 09 May.
The candidature fees are to discourage frivolous and unserious aspirants obscuring the party’s focus and hindering its planning and strategy.
The charges called deposits are made in several countries of the democratic world and for the same reason as obtains in Nigeria which, in the main, is to keep away those who are said to be unserious. The model varies from country to country to suit peculiarities in some cases. In the United Kingdom, a candidate must deposit the sum of £500 to be validly nominated. As the word connotes, being a deposit, it is refundable after the poll if he scores a specified proportion of the votes cast. If he fails to hit the percentage threshold, he forfeits the deposit. In Singapore, the election deposit by a candidate for a parliamentary election is 8 per cent of the total allowances paid to a member of parliament in the preceding year but rounded to what they call the nearest $500. For the presidential elections the deposit is tripled. In India, it is called security deposit. The sum of 25,000 Rupes is collected for a seat in Lower House of Parliament and for the state Houses of Assembly, it is 10,000 Rupes. Any candidate who fails to secure beyond 16.7 per cent of total valid votes cast in a first-past-the-post voting system, it is said, will forfeit his deposit. In our own clime, it is outright purchase of the nomination form!
With the heavy sum of money a candidate for an electoral position has to pay, it should go without saying that a great many Nigerian youths will be locked out of contestation to serve their communities except they tie themselves to the apron string of a godfather. How is a young worker going to raise N1 million from his earnings to buy a form to contest for a place in any of our Houses of Assembly? A governorship aspirant waving the PDP flag is made to fork out N21 million in the present Nigerian economy and in the APC N50 million! These are just for expression of interest and picking of nomination forms. For setting up structures, for research and surveys, for campaigns, paying for campaign venues, and securing polling booths he is likely to spend as much as he has spent collecting a form! What do we call this if it is not commercialisation of our electoral processes and selling our parliamentary seats to the highest bidder? Not many upon getting to office are likely to be able to concentrate on his job and resist the temptation to recover the humongous expenses as priority either to repay loans or simply to recoup for his labour or for his kitty or to compensate the godfather or the hangers-on who are simply looking up to him for palliatives. The elective positions will thus miss the idealism, resourcefulness and energy youths naturally have at their command.
Come to think of it, if I may go back memory lane, in what I captioned “Food for Thought,” I recalled in 2017 Professor Wole Soyinka agonising over the dearth of our young men in the heights along the line of our forebears and leaders of old. On the occasion in reference, Prof. asked: ‘Where did we go wrong? Wake up Nigerian Youths!’ And he wrote:
‘Awolowo was 37 years;
‘Akintola was 36
‘Ahmadu Bello, 36,
‘Balewa 34;
Okotie-Eboh 27; and
‘Enahoro 27.
‘And they led the struggle for Nigeria’s independence after the death of Macaulay. Only Zik was 42 at the time!…
‘Under 30s were also not in short supply with appointments; we had examples of MT Mbu who became Nigeria’s Foreign Affairs Minister at 23 and Pat Utomi who became a federal Adviser at 27. And so on and so forth!’
Professor Soyinka further lamented the absence of the critical class of youth population: ‘Now: Why is it that almost all this age bracket is still sleeping in three-seater chairs in their parents’ homes? Why is it that this age bracket is today still collecting pocket money from their parents? Why is it that this age bracket today still ‘sag’ their trousers? Why is it that this age is today still searching for jobs and not married? Why is it that this age bracket today is incapable of feeding itself? Why is it that this age bracket is today barred from even aspiring to certain political offices? Why is it that this age bracket is today incapacitated, unwilling, unable and incapable of asking questions? God bless Nigeria!’
This column then did state that what Professor Soyinka did not say, out of modesty, is his own exemplary, towering iconic achievements. At 24 in 1958, his first major play, The Swamp Dwellers had been performed; The Lion and the Jewel in 1959 at 25 and The Trial of Brother Jero the following year as well as A Dance of the Forests. Kongi’s Harvest was performed in 1965. The Interpreters was also published in 1965 when he was barely 31. He founded ‘The 1960 Masks in 1960 and the Orisun Theatre in 1964. Chinua Achebe published his first and generally regarded as his most outstanding work, Things Fall Apart, in 1958 at the age of 28’. The column then went on: ‘If I may also add, Bode Thomas, Rotimi Williams (Timi the Law) and Remi Fani-Kayode founded the first indigenous law firm in Nigeria in 1948 with Bode Thomas as the oldest at 29, followed by FRA Williams at 28 and Fani-Kayode at 27. And so, Prof’s questions remain unanswered for now’. That was in 2017. And I dare say they remain unanswered till this day, nine years after! It is, therefore, unconscionable, if not cruel, to add political blockade to whatever unfulfilled aspirations they may harbour and wish to nourish.
The Exit Of Wale Edun
The exit of Wale Edun from Bola Tinubu Administration effective from yesterday, as I learn, is too dramatic. Yes, stories went the rounds late last year that he might leave cloaked in official language of ‘on health grounds’, although he was at a point known to have health issues. There were reports in October last year that he was rushed ill to Britain and could not attend the IMF/World Bank meeting. He was out of public glare for a while undoubtedly because of his health.
Some were suggesting that his exit could be as a result of differences which may have arisen between him and his principal, the President, resulting in an embarrassing altercation between the duo at one of the Federal Executive Council meetings. Oxygen was driven into the speculation to make it go viral when after Edun turned in his resignation letter on Tuesday and the Villa was tongue tied. No word about his exit should have been allowed to go out until the Presidency was ready with its own statement. The delay put the government in bad light. The departure of a finance minister ordinarily is not the exit of just a public functionary but the leaving of a really ranking officer. Added to Edun’s portfolio is coordinating minister of the economy.
In the United Kingdom, the Chancellor of the Exchequer ranks next to the Prime Minister. While the latter lives in 10 Downing Street, the chancellor resides next to him at 11 Downing Street and is described as the official residence of the Second Lord of the Treasury since 1828. It was built alongside that of the Prime Minister, that is Number 10, in 1682. The history of that is that in the days of old the chancellor lived so close by such that the Queen could have ready access to the treasury and the chancellor was regarded as the Queen’s treasurer, Her Majesty’s Treasury. In the modern days since the Prime Minister swears by the Queen’s name, or the King’s as the case may be, it should follow that the chancellor lives next door to Her Majesty’s Prime Minister. The chancellor is the shadow deputy prime minister till this day.
In addition to the inexcusable altercation, no matter what, were complaints over poor and hindering release of funds by contractors and concern by the House of Representatives before whom Edun and junior Minister Doris Uzoka-Anite were taken up on slow disbursements of funds for the execution of the budget and the attendant fears that budgets overlapping might shake investors’ confidence in the economic performance of the country. The encounter led to Doris Uzoka-Anita being eased out of office. The report of Wale Edun himself to the House must clearly have embarrassed the Presidency and analysts concluded that his days in government were numbered, the statement coming barely three months after the President spoke on the subject of borrowing.
The President said to Buhari Organisation stakeholders visiting him at the Villa in September last year that revenue target had been met and the country was no longer borrowing. In his words: ‘Nigeria is not borrowing. We have met our revenue target for the year and we met it in August’. But Edun appearing before the Committee on Finance and National Planning in December, barely three months later, on the 2026-2028 Medium-Term Expenditure Framework spoke contradicting the President. He said the Administration was likely to miss its 2025 revenue target by about N30 trillion Naira and had, in fact, borrowed about N14. 1 trillion to bridge the fiscal gap.
Wale Edun wants to see himself as a technocrat in the image of Gamaliel Onosode known for rigour and impeccable integrity. Always in his elements grappling with figures, he went to the National Assembly waving data before the honourable, probing and unrelenting Committee of the House.
Edun would hardly want to see himself as a politician, especially amidst a cloud of worries among the enlightened populace in the early days of the Administration that the engine of public spending may have broken loose. Wale Edun, a competent technocrat, is one person who would want to scrutinise every document, every cheque brought before him, which in effect is capable of slowing down things. A balance was what was called for, what Aremo Segun Osoba was wont to term speed and accuracy. Edun was wrong in not clearing in advance his statement before the House Committee with his principal. Both the President and his minister must be seen to be speaking from the same page on any issue. It is the President who bears ultimate responsibility before the nation not the unelected ministers.
