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By John Ogunsemore
Executive Director, Kimpact Development Initiative, Bukola Idowu said the N10 billion spending mark for presidential election campaign in the Electoral Act 2026 will aid corruption.
He said this as a guest on Arise TV‘s “NewsNight” programme on Monday.
On Sunday, Leader of the Senate, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, provided key highlights of the new Electoral Act.
He said the new regime reviewed upward the election spending limit under Section 92(1-8) of the Electoral Act, raising the spending threshold for presidential poll from N5 billion to N10 billion.
Bamidele added that it also raised the spending threshold for governorship poll from N1 billion to N3 billion; from N100 million to ₦500 million for the Senate; from N70 million to N250 million for the House of Representatives; from N30 million to N100 million for the House of Assembly; from N30 million to N60 million for Area Council and from N5 million to N10 million for the councillorship poll.
Idowu noted that the National Assembly had based its decision to increase the presidential spending mark from N5 billion in the Electoral Act 2022 to N10 billion in the Electoral Act 2026 on inflation.
However, he said this decision was not backed by facts, statistics or data.
The public affairs commentator observed that the president does not earn N10 billion officially in four years, wondering how the lawmakers expect the funds to be recouped.
He said, “You gave a blanket N3 billion to the governor and for the president N10 billion. How did you get this figure? Look at it this way. Kano has 44 local governments. Bayelsa has 8. Someone in Bayelsa will campaign with N3 billion. And someone in Lagos will also campaign with N3 billion? So what data are you using?
“At the end of the day you’ll say the president will be N10 billion…It doesn’t really make any statistical sense. It’s not backed by law. It’s just like you put something blanket there.
“Some of the things we need to begin to look at is this: if a president is going to contest and you say he shouldn’t spend more than N10 billion, his salary in four years is not up to N10 billion. Even if he is able to get the money, you can’t spend that much and go on and lose. So that needs to be reviewed and backed by facts.
“If someone spends what he cannot earn in four years (on campaign) already we’re laying foundation for corruption.”
