by Tosin Adesina

In the build up to the 2011 Presidential elections, foremost media entrepreneur, Dele Momodu, the publisher of Ovation Magazine contested for the Presidency under the banner of the Labour Party and he eventually emerged as the candidate; the shock that happened few weeks to the election is what Dele Momodu won’t forget until eternity.

He suffered his defeat within his party before the election date as the Labour Party declared their support for President Jonathan despite having Dele Momodu as its candidate submitted to INEC.

Why the Dan Nwanyanwu-led executive made that decision was not known then until he granted an interview years later, justifying the inability of Dele Momodu to possess the financial wherewithal and a private jet for the campaign. His manifesto and idea weren’t enough for Nwanyanwu but his money and Private jet.

Nwanyannwu’s statement is a reflection of the Nigerian state as money appears to be all that is needed to win an election.

The moment an aspirant declares his or her intention for a position the next thing is money. If he pays courtesy visit to royal father’s and political leaders he must also ‘drop something’, Youth groups, women groups, NURTW among others, will only be convinced through money, even when he is yet to win the party primaries, he would have spent a lot of money to oil his political machinery.

The money won’t stop after the primaries as you need to finance the party too. Forms for political office are so exorbitant that if you don’t have a financial war chest you can’t purchase the form. In the build up to the 2015 general elections, President Buhari himself complained about the fees of his nomination form and that he had to seek a bank loan to get the form from the APC and he hasn’t done anything to reduce the expensive nature of the political process in Nigeria.

Though we can heave a sigh of relief through the Independent Candidacy bill, the money bags have spoilt the political process already as electorates are now commodities that can be bought through political mercenaries. How will a young aspirant tell the electorates he doesn’t have money and other freebies to give when they are adapted to such largesse from Political Parties??

The expected entrant of Atiku Abubakar into the 2019 Presidential race will likely pose a threat to the #NotTooYoungToRun campaign as his financial war chest will give any aspirant a run for his ambition, as a result, we need the #NotTooPoorToRun to complement the #NotToYounToRun.

Editor