Election Spendings of Parties & Contestants

This cycle is gone. The kind of funds being deployed and expended for the 2011 elections is truly mind-boggling by any measure. And you ask yourself, where is all this coming from? Yet, no-one is counting, so, no-one will account. Sad.

In the face of harrowing poverty and unemployment, not to mention decayed infrastructure and absence of electricity, the political class has been truly obscene! The spendings need to tell us the truth: Looting is alive and well, despite EFCC and in spite of ICPC! We mock prudence and decency. Period.

Here is my private thought: Those who lose and those who knew they would lose, where will they recoup from? If what they deployed didn't matter, how did they make the huge pile that produced this "chicken change", then? What is their tax profile? Why are elections so heavily monetized in this country? Who will stop this deviancy?

Since all have sinned and there is no saint in this matter, we pass.

In 2011, there is no capacity or time or incentive for INEC to look this way. Come 2015, we must enforce the law on election expenditure. Must.

The EFCC "Name & Shame" List

The 137-strong list of "investigated" and "indicted" political gladiators put out by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, was a bombshell of sorts. The BBC reported it as name and shame while highlighting Vice President Atiku Abubakar's presence on the infamous list.

Not surprisingly there is an uproar. There will be more. And it will be messy.

My worry is that the commission is asking the world to take its word for it! No way! Let them do the right and proper thing: put facts & figures behind the charges. That way, we can exercise our full discretion and wait for further action.

My advice is that the presidency should stay completely out of this. The EFCC doesn't need any megaphone. Let Nuhu Ribadu take his case to the COURTS. So should those who fell aggrieved.

Meanwhile, the political parties need to honour this list with due process and integrity. We in the public domain, especially through the independent media, must insist on hearing all sides of the story. Yes.

We are the voters!