- The N45m presidential nomination fee of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is still generating reactions nationwide
- A former national commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Lai Olurode, says the fee automatically shut out other aspirants
- He said President Muhammadu Buhari should have rejected the fee
A former national commissioner of INEC, Professor Lai Olurode, on Sunday, September 9, said President Muhammadu Buhari should have rejected the N45 million approved by the APC as cost of its presidential nomination form ahead of the 2019 general elections.
He said other aspirants, especially the youth, who could not afford the nomination form, had been shut out by the decision of the ruling party.
The professor of sociology at the University of Lagos said this in Lagos during the annual national conference of Muslim Students’ Society of Nigeria (MSSN), Lagos Area Unit, Daily Trust reports.
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“That is a wrong way of opening up the political system. The political space is still restricted, definitely there is no youth that can go, not to talk of the money that you need to even do campaign.
“So before you know it, we are all in the hands of moneybags, and wherever money dictates, you cannot have development. It must be supported with strong ethics and with strong morals. Morals are being checkmated. So there is no opportunity for a young person to go into politics.
“I think the leadership of the country must respond more timeously and strongly to challenges confronting the youth in this country," Olurode lamented.
He also decried the rampant cases of vote buying which he described as unIslamic as “it amounts to distortion of freedom, it amounts to mortgaging your freedom.”
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Meanwhile, the Not Too Young To Run movement has accused some state governors of working to frustrate the leadership ambition of the youths by hijacking the sale of nomination forms.
According to them, the governors were hell-bent on edging out the youths from vying for elected public offices by making the expression of interest and nomination forms exorbitant and out of their reach.
A co-convener of the movement, Hamzat Lawal, said this in Gombe at a press conference last week in the state.
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Source: Naija.ng
