The pan Yoruba sociopolitical organisation, Afenifere, has lashed out at the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over the exorbitant price tags both parties placed on nomination forms for aspirants seeking to contest the parties’ tickets ahead of the 2023 election. The foremost Yoruba group in a statement issued by Sola Ebiseni, its General- Secretary, said the prices placed on the nomination forms were the height of political insensitivity and open invitation to thievery. APC had pegged its presidential nomination and expression of interest forms at N100 million and that of governorship at N50 million while the PDP presidential nomination form cost at N40 million and governorship, N21 million. Ebiseni, in the statement, stressed that the action of both parties was a move to shut ordinary Nigerians out of governance and politics.
He said: “The cost of the APC nomination forms is only responding to the shameful state of the economy under its government where the rate of inflation is intractable and cost of living unprecedentedly unbearable. “It is an insulting message to the pauperised Nigerians that they have no say in the governance of Nigeria or any part thereof. “It is a direct affront to the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and particularly the declaration in Section 14 (2) (b) that the participation of Nigerians in their government shall be ensured in accordance with the provisions of the constitution.
“How can the poor members of the party who are so blatantly discriminated against, on the basis of their situation in life, contrary to Section 42 of the constitution, participate in the governance of the country particularly in a country where only a political party can field a candidate and no independent candidate is allowed?” Ebiseni further stated that: “Unfortunately, the two dominant parties are both guilty in this game of absurdity and conspiracy against the ordinary Nigerians in the access to their platforms for political participation. “For the PDP, it runs contrary to the objectives of their founding fathers led by the likes of Alex Ekwueme and Solomon Lar.
“The current price placed on participation is the very highest of political insensitivity and open invitation to thievery by anyone who could only corruptly meander himself to power. “The country has been handed over to the nouveau riche only the restructuring of its political architecture, liberalising access of the citizens to power, can stem the inevitable descent to oligarchy and anarchy.”