By Ngozi Nwankwo
Governorship aspirants on the platform of the Nigeria Democratic Congress have criticised a N5 billion bank balance requirement set by the party’s screening committee, describing it as excessive and at odds with internal democracy.
The committee, chaired by Senator Sam Egwu, began screening aspirants this week after its inauguration on Monday. While the panel screened the party’s sole presidential aspirant, Peter Obi, on Tuesday, governorship candidates were told they must provide proof of N5 billion in their accounts to scale through the process.
Aspirants who spoke to Nigerian Pilot on Wednesday said the benchmark had no basis in the Electoral Act or the NDC constitution and risked alienating credible candidates without access to such funds.
“It is high-handedness,” said a South-South aspirant. “This is not contemplated in the Electoral Act or the NDC constitution. The NDC is an opposition party and should not behave like the ruling party by dictating conditions that favour only the highest bidder.”
He argued that the requirement undermined the party’s appeal to aspirants with a record of good governance and would weaken its chances of challenging the ruling All Progressives Congress.
“Even the APC never contemplated such a huge benchmark for governorship aspirants,” he said. “The screening committee should de-emphasise financial clout and focus on acceptability and electability.”
The aspirant acknowledged that governorship contests require funding but said proof of N5 billion was unnecessary for a newly registered party seeking to build nationwide support ahead of the deadline for candidate submissions to INEC.
The screening for governorship aspirants is scheduled to continue Thursday.
Efforts to reach Senator Egwu for comment were unsuccessful as calls and text messages went unanswered.
