Skip to main content

Prof Attahiru Jega-National Assembly Turning Democracy To Plutocracy

 


National Assembly Turning Democracy To Plutocracy – Jega

Prof Attahiru Jega, former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has accused members of the National Assembly of turning the country’s democracy into a plutocracy where only the rich can seek political offices.

Jega, in a town hall meeting on the electoral amendment bill 2021, organised by Yiaga Africa and partners.

He said this while reacting to the astronomical increase in maximum campaign spendings as proposed by the National Assembly in the electoral amendment bill 2021.

He said, “I think that we were so concerned about debating on the issue of electronic transmission of results and the other issues that we tended to not pay attention to the issue (campaigns spendings); it is a very important issue; where is a presidential candidate going to get 15 billion to run or a governor to get 5 billion naira to run? Unless if you a Dangote or Otedola where you can use your own money.

“What they are doing is that they are turning our democracy into plutocracy; government of the rich, for the rich and by the rich; it’s a very serious problem.”

He argued that it was contradictory for the lawmakers to be talking about inclusiveness when they are making proposals of a humongous amount of money to contest for elections.

“On the one hand, you said you are including women and people with disabilities and on the other hand, you said you must have a lot of money to be able to contest for a particular office.

“It’s a terrible contradiction and frankly, we have been talking a lot about reducing the influence of money in politics but what they are doing through legislation is to actually make it more difficult for those who do not have money to be able to contest for offices.”

Culled:Daily Trust 

Comments

Post a Comment

Type your comments here

Popular posts from this blog

Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Wins Big In Governor Nyesom Wike's Local Government Area

The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu, has won the Obio-Akpor, the Local Government Area of Governor Nyesom Wike in Rivers State by a landslide. Tinubu polled 80,239 votes to defeat the Candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, who came a distant second with 3,829 and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), who got 368 votes.
Post a Comment
Read more

Breaking! BDC Operators Close Operations In Abuja - Over Dollar Scarcity

Bureau De Change operators have announced shut down of operations in Abuja as a result of unavailability of the dollars,  The Chairman of the association, Abdullahi Dauran, made the announcement on Wednesday. The chairman of the Association of Bureau De Change Abuja chapter, issued the directive to stop sales as the exchange rates in both the official and parallel markets have become unfavourable. Dauran attributed the closure to online business transactions and cryptocurrency. Echoblog spoke to Jamilu a BDC owner who also confirmed the news. The closure of business would take effect from Thursday, February 1, 2024. On Tuesday naira closed at an all-time low of N1,482 against the United States dollar on the official window. It stayed stable at N1,450/$ at the parallel market.
Post a Comment
Read more

$1 Billion Arms Sale To Nigeria-Approved By The US

The U.S. government has announced that it has approved the sale of attack aircraft and other equipments to Nigeria. The aircraft are expected to to be used against terrorists and other gunmen operating in the West African country. According to a statement Thursday by the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency, the equipments are to cost Nigeria about $997 million. The acquisition of the aircraft and other equipments comes less than a year after the U.S. government supplied the country with 12 units of super tucano aircrafts paid for by Nigeria. PREMIUM TIMES had last year reported that the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) had taken delivery of the second batch of six A-29 Super Tucano aircraft from the United States. The first batch also comprising six aircraft was delivered in July 2021. New Equipments According to the Thursday statement, the equipments requested to be purchased by the Nigerian government include 12 AH-1Z Attack Helicopters; twenty-eight (28) T-700 GE 401C engines (24 insta...
Post a Comment
Read more