.Allocates figures for Akpabio, Abbas, others

Former National Vice Chairman (North West) of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr. Salihu Lukman, has claimed President Bola Tinubu may have spent N100 billion to clinch the seat during this year’s general elections.

In a piece titled: “Resolving APC’s Progressive Retrogression,” the Kaduna-born politician also alleged that the Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Godswill Akpabio and Tajudeen Abbas may have parted with not less than N50 billion apiece to get support for their respective offices.

He added that the party’s governorship candidates might have expended not less than N10 billion to win their elections.

The Progressive Governors Forum (PGF) ex-Director General noted that the high cost of winning elections was enough to weaken the bond between elected leaders and party faithful, thus creating problems of accessibility.

He contended that so long as elected leaders, especially the President, are inaccessible to other party leaders, the prospect of returning APC to its founding vision would remain a mirage.

His words: “As things are, we must be honest, Nigerian politics cannot continue the way it is today. Many Nigerians, especially APC members, expected that doing away with money politics is one of the changes APC will bring about.

“Unfortunately, things have progressively got worse. Sadly too, because structures of the party are not functioning, there is no avenue to deliberate all these and make proposals. APC is progressively losing even the little democratic credentials, which in 2015, encouraged Nigerians to expect the possibility of a progressive party emerging out of it.”

Reminiscing how money politics allegedly played a major role in the emergence of President Tinubu and other public office holders, Lukman submitted: “In the case of the 2015 general elections, it is most likely that many of those who emerged as the governorship candidates for APC and won the party primary may have succeeded with far less than N1 billion. Although many would imagine such a cost as outrageous, this is most likely to be a very conservative estimate.

“There are states such as Lagos, Rivers, Delta and Akwa Ibom, which may have cost far above N2 billion to win the governorship primary in 2015. Like the case of cost of nomination forms, the cost certainly increased in 2019 and 2023 substantially.”