The high cost of the APC presidential nomination form is akin to an invitation to steal since no sane person goes into a business to suffer loss.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) pegged its presidential nomination form at N100 million, which is the equivalent of more than seven years’ salary of a Nigerian president.
An analysis of the figure done by an online newspaper, Premium Times, remarks that the high cost of the presidential nomination form is akin to an invitation to steal since no sane person goes into a business to suffer loss.
According to the newspaper, the Nigerian president receives a total salary package of N1.17 million monthly.
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According to data from the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) published by Premium Times, the breakdown of earnings of a Nigerian president includes a basic monthly salary of N292,892, and a hardship allowance of N146,446 monthly, and a consistency allowance of N732,230 per month.
Once the figures are crunched, the annual salary of a Nigerian president stands at N14 million, roughly N98 million in seven years.
But the N100 million nomination form of the APC is for a term of four years. This means the president is paying N100 million nomination form for a job with four years cumulative salary of N56 million.
The newspaper pointed out that the cost of the forms is different from the several billions of naira aspirants will incur on campaigns tour around the country, with line costs on chartered aircraft, high accommodation costs to lodge guests, mobilise crowd to the venue of campaigns and other logistics.
Like the presidential nomination form, the governorship nomination form of N50 million also appears to be an invitation to steal.
According to data from RMAFC also published by Premium Times, a Nigerian governor takes home N7.8 million annually, consisting of a modest base salary plus several large allowances and gratuities.
It pointed out that at N50 million for a governorship nomination form, the fee is higher than six years of annual earnings of a governor whose cumulative four years stands at N46.8 million.
Also, the cost of the APC senatorial form of N20 million which is higher than the pay package of a law lawmaker for four years.