With N21 billion in PDP’s kitty

He then donated another N2 billion on behalf of another group of friends, which he said came from all over the country. The occasion’s chairman Professor Jerry Gana donated N5 billion which he said was on behalf of his friends while the National Automotive Council donated N450 million. Among other generous donors, Hajiya Bola Shagaya […]

He then donated another N2 billion on behalf of another group of friends, which he said came from all over the country. The occasion’s chairman Professor Jerry Gana donated N5 billion which he said was on behalf of his friends while the National Automotive Council donated N450 million.
Among other generous donors, Hajiya Bola Shagaya donated N5 billion on behalf of the oil and gas industry. Only last Wednesday, Finance Minister Mrs Okonjo-Iweala accused this same industry of abusing the pioneer status tax exempt policy.  The construction industry, which is yet to explain the spate of building collapses, donated N310 million while the chairman of Deep Offshore, Didi Ndiomu donated N1 billion on behalf of the transport and aviation industry. The real estate sector donated N4 billion; the food and agricultural sector gave N500 million; Cizaly Ltd donated N250 million while the power sector, still struggling to shake off government regulation, gave N500 million. The PDP Governors’ Forum announced that each of the 21 PDP state governors donated N50 million, a total N1.05 billion.
All these monies set me thinking. The last time that a political party did a shocking fund raiser in Nigeria was back in 1979. It was a fund raiser organized by the National Party of Nigeria [NPN] to fund its election campaign of that year. Its presidential candidate Alhaji Shehu Shagari stood up and donated N5,000. A young chap today might say that was pittance but remember that in 1979 the minimum monthly wage in the civil service was 60 naira. N5,000 was cost of a brand new Peugeot 504 saloon car that year.
Anyway, Shagari’s generous donation was instantly dwarfed by the chief launcher, Chief MKO Abiola’s. The then chairman of ITT Nigeria dipped his hands into his pocket and produced two bank cheques. With his left hand he waved a cheque for N250,000 and with his right hand Abiola waved a cheque of N750,000. It was a financial shock and awe moment in Nigeria and the following day a newspaper columnist called it “a sad, sad day.” Maybe because in those days an average state government budgeted about N50 million for the whole year.
After watching the PDP event I pitied the Electoral Act. It has a certain toothless provision which said something about limiting campaign spending. I think it even mentioned some figures. What PDP raked in at a single dinner far exceeded the limit set by the law but who is there in Louis Edet House that will apprehend the PDP treasurer and confiscate the money?
A real novelty at Saturday night’s occasion was that every important sector of the Nigerian economy was required to cough out money for the president’s campaign. A curious Nigerian schoolchild may wish to look again at his pocket dictionary for the meaning of bribery. How can an economic sector that is amenable to heavy government regulation such as the aviation industry donate a princely N1 billion to the president’s party? I thought the authorities said they have been trying in recent months to force airlines to pay parking and landing fees, to make their old planes conform to safety and environmental standards and to also make them to stop fleecing passengers through poor services. How can this be done when they have pumped so much money into the president’s campaign?
Why didn’t our businessmen borrow a leaf in donation perfidy from their American counterparts? In America corporations are banned from donating money to campaigns so they instead go about it in a roundabout way. A major corporation will divide its directors into two groups. One group will make personal donations to one party while the other half will donate to the other major party. That way their company wins whichever party wins the election. Another roundabout route is to donate money to a political action committee that supports a candidate, but not to the candidate directly. Nigeria’s businessmen have foolishly placed all their eggs in one political basket. What happens if the opposition accidentally wins the election?
One very curious donor at the event was the National Automotive Council. Does the law permit government agencies to donate money to political parties? I know they are doing that all the time, albeit secretly. No one expects NNPC, CBN, Customs and the Ports Authority not to make hefty donations to the PDP campaign but they will do it through contractors and assorted clients. NAC is the first government agency that stepped forward and made a political donation at a time when motor manufacturers are fighting hard to subvert the Federal Government’s new national automotive policy.
One remarkable novelty of Nigerian fund raisers is to make a monetary donation in the name of friends. It happens during religious and community fund raisers when a public officer, too ashamed to say the money is from his own pocket, will say that it is his friends that are making the donation. In most cases this is a lie. Any friend who is kind enough to send in a billion naira to a cause might sooner have his name publicly mentioned as the donor. Many people will therefore ask the question, who are those friends of Professor Jerry Gana that sent N5 billion for him to donate? As far as I can see, all his friends at the Ahmadu Bello University’s Geography Department cannot contribute a million naira even if ASUU succeeds in getting lecturers to be paid their salaries after striking for nearly a year.
Another curious feature of the fund raiser was the donation made by the PDP Governors’ Forum. Each of the 21 PDP governors donated N50 million. That includes a man like Ekiti’s Ayo Fayose, who has been governor for only a few weeks and has barely recovered from his own stomach infrastructure-laced campaign. It also includes men such as Governor Bala James Ngilari of Adamawa who took over only last month and was denied a return ticket by the same party. Also donating N50 million is Taraba’s Acting Governor Sani Abubakar Danladi, who was miraculously revived by the Supreme Court only last month.
I was just wondering. Besides the obvious fear that this money could wash away APC’s election chances, what will General Muhammadu Buhari think of all what happened?  He might be thinking wistfully of his old deputy Major General Tunde Idiagbon. In 1984 the Buhari/Idiagbon regime constituted what they called Special Military Investigation Panels to probe all the detained politicians prior to their arraignment before the Special Military Tribunals. The panels adopted a novel method of investigation. They will check a man’s bank account and other assets, then calculate the total figure. They will separately calculate all the salary he earned during his time in public office, subtract it from his total assets and ask him to explain where he got the difference. Even though lawyers complained at the time that this method inverted the system of justice, it did not stop the tribunals from handing down stiff jail terms to convicted persons. Some got as much as 300 years in prison. That is why I am advising public officers to be careful before they make public donations, just in case.  
The final question is what will PDP do with all this money? The only campaign activities on which it could legally spend money are logistics, printing of posters, erecting billboards, newspaper ads, radio and television jingles, legal fees, paying campaign staff and polling agents. These are costly items to be sure but a billion naira will probably do all of that. The suspicion of many people is that most of this money will now be budgeted for “stomach infrastructure,” the new code name for the outright bribing of voters.