Karigwe (Prophet of Thoughts)@Karigwe
NDC, this is bad. Really bad.
How can you call yourself a people’s party when the people cannot even afford to run for office under your platform?
₦2.5 million for State House of Assembly.
₦6 million for House of Representatives.
₦8 million for Senate.
₦30 million for Governorship.
₦60 million for Presidency.
This is not democracy at all, democracy is supposed to be a government by the people for the people but this one is just for the elites.
This is nothing but a way to stop ordinary Nigerians from ever running for office. Because tell me, how many ordinary citizens can afford this without being sponsored by some godfather who will later want to control them?
A Nigerian minimum wage worker earns ₦70,000 per month. That means the cheapest form here, State House of Assembly, is almost three years of salary if that person saves every naira and spends nothing on food, rent, transport, bills, family, or survival.
For House of Reps, it is over seven years of minimum wage salary.
For Senate, over nine years.
For Governorship, over thirty-five years.
For Presidency, over seventy-one years.
What exactly are ordinary Nigerians supposed to do with this kind of system?
Even in the UK, where the standard of living is far better than Nigeria’s, standing for Parliament requires a £500 deposit, and that deposit is refundable if the candidate gets at least 5% of the votes. Refundable is the key word.
A UK minimum wage worker doing only 20 hours a week can earn more than that in a month. But in Nigeria, a full-time minimum wage worker cannot even afford the cheapest political form after one full year of work.
So we need to ask the honest question:
Why does it cost more for an ordinary Nigerian to attempt State House of Assembly than it costs someone in the UK to begin the process of contesting for Parliament?
The US is different too because ballot access rules vary by state, but their major problem is campaign funding, not political parties charging people tens of millions just to buy internal party forms.
This is exactly why Nigerian politics keeps recycling the same rich men, godfathers, political merchants, and sponsored candidates.
You price out the ordinary citizens first, then you pretend to be shocked that the same corrupt class keeps returning to power.
NDC, if you are truly a people’s party, then stop pricing the people out of politics like the other political parties are doing.
