Chukwudike Ndubeze, Awka
Former Cross River State Governor, Clement Ebri, has flayed the leadership of the All Progressives Congress, APC, over the exorbitant cost of its nomination and expression of interest forms for 2023 general election.
The party had pegged the cost of nomination and expression of interest forms for presidential candidates at N100 million.
APC also fixed its governorship nomination and expression of interest forms for N50 million; while both forms sell for N20 million and N10 million for Senate and House of Representatives respectively.
The party equally fixed N2 million for State House of Assembly forms.
Making his displeasure known in a statement made available to Ikengaonline on Thursday, the ex- Governor noted that “personal wealth was not the yardstick of assessing quality leaders.”
He said: “The current party position on the cost of forms for expression of interest and nomination for elective offices vitiates the very principles upon which the party campaigned and was voted into power.
“APC owes it to itself and the teeming numbers of Nigerians who voted it into power for two consecutive terms, to remain a Party of true progressives and a true Party of progressives.
“The danger this poses to the party is that many prospective and otherwise eminently qualified office seekers that do not possess enormous personal wealth will in every practical sense, be precluded from seeking party nomination, regardless of the depth and breadth of their popular support.
“If the reason for the exorbitant cost of nomination forms is simply to prune the number of contenders, or to delineate the pretenders from the contenders, then I think that argument is flawed. There are ample objective and progressive criteria such as: integrity, experience, character, political antecedents, empathy, intelligence, goodwill, etc, which can be employed to enable the emergence of genuinely qualified candidates.”
The former Governor complained that the party’s aspirants including youths pay higher compared with their counterparts in the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
He also expressed worry over persons living with disability, PWD, who are do not have the resources to afford the expression of interest forms.
The party through its National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, had since justified that the APC had acted on internal advice concerning the price tags on its nomination forms and took into consideration the present economic situation in the country.
Morka also dismissed the allegation that the party was only for the elite and aristocrats.
