Nenadi and Jonathan’s campaign money

The elections provided breaks for quick business for people with the connection in the murky waters of politics as both the real and the fake business people swam on political party candidates and their parties for windows of businesses.In the past, party members, contractors and indeed other business people had a windfall of funds to […]

The elections provided breaks for quick business for people with the connection in the murky waters of politics as both the real and the fake business people swam on political party candidates and their parties for windows of businesses.
In the past, party members, contractors and indeed other business people had a windfall of funds to play around with. But in the last general elections, the same category of Nigerians who were available for a grab of the PDP’s campaign funds as in 2011 were not fortunate as the campaigns financial fortunes nosedived therefore, leaving a gap between expectations and reality which led to some of the finance managers being wrongly accused of prevention to campaign funds.
The In the case of the PDP and APC, there have been outcries by some members of the parties and contractors alike on how the financial directors handled the disbursement of campaign funds.
Such outcry is loudest in the camp of the new opposition party, the PDP which lost the 2015 general elections to the APC. Its campaign director of finance, Senator Nenadi Usman, has come under several attacks in the media lately over fund management.
The choice of Senator Usman to chair the finance committee of the Jonathan/Sambo Presidential Campaign Organisation didn’t come as a surprise to many who have kept a tab on her record in public service. The former Commissioner of Environment, Natural Resources and Health in Kaduna State at different times, and also former Minister of State Finance and later Minister of Finance, has an enviable track record in that regard.
Today, the Senator in the 7th Assembly, who is no stranger to political intrigues and campaign funds administration, is being pelted with acrimonious accusations of alleged mismanagement of the Jonathan/Sambo 2015 campaign funds when in fact she should be praised for saving face of the campaign organisation from financial embarrassment in the face of dwindling cash availability at the campaigns.
For instance, a company which is alleging non-payment by Senator Usman offered to undertake ‘President’s Voice SMS Campaign Broadcast To Eligible Voters’ to 60 million Nigerian voters at N7 per number broadcast. After 25% discount of N1.75k, the PCO was expected to pay N100 million of the total seed fund sum of N315 million while the remaining balance of N215 million was to be raised from private sources.
Meanwhile, the actual cost of SMS in Nigeria to any network remains N4 and sending SMS in bulk to 60 million Nigerians should ordinarily attract good discount. The counterpart funding were never raised by the said company after collecting N20 million from the PCO and only 3 about million Lagos and Abuja lines actually received the President’s voice SMS broadcast according to the company’s sources.
Clearly, contractors and ambitious individuals saw political campaigns as opportunities for easy money-making. In many cases, when they fail in their bid to extort money, they resort to using the judiciary and sometimes lawyers as platforms to achieve an otherwise impossible financial goal.
Ganiyu Rabo, Obafemi Awolowo Road, Lagos