The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), has requested the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) as well as All Progressive Congress (APC), to formally release costs of spending incurred in their efforts geared towards the 2015 General election.
Adetokunbo Mumuni, Executive Director of SERAP, in two separate letters dated 18 November, 2014, and addressed to Alhaji Ahmadu Adamu Mu’azu, PDP National Chairman and Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, the APC National Chairman, requested the parties to publicly present information about the spending on the electoral campaigns and other operations in line with the February 2015 elections.
The Civil society group, SERAP hinged its request letter on Section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) of 2011, when it said: “Under the FOI Act, your party is under a binding legal obligation to provide the applicant with the information requested for, except as otherwise provided by the Act, within 7 days after the application is received.”
Similarly, SERAP maintained that “If the requested information is not provided to us within 14 days of the receipt and/or publication of this letter, the Registered Trustees of SERAP shall take all appropriate legal actions under the Freedom of Information Act to compel you and your party to comply with our request,”.
Embittered about the risks and increase in corrupt practices around the country during electoral campaigns for the general elections, the group expressed dedicated worries, especially the role of money in politics and the persistent failure generally to comply with national and international law on political party finance.
In addition, the Executive Director further stressed that Nigerians have the right to know about spending by political parties especially the major parties “like your party with a strong possibility to assume government in the future. Citizens should be able to examine financial transactions of parties and be certain that politicians are working for their voters, not their benefactors.”
However, SERAP noted that the parties cannot claim a strange position from the FOI Act, saying “to do so will seriously undermine citizens’ trust in their political parties and lack of trust will inevitably destroy confidence in the system and decrease citizens’ interest and participation in democratic processes.”
The letter signed by the Executive Director, reads: “We believe that without free and fair elections there can be no democracy. However, elections are only one part of the democratic process, and a fair and effective electoral system must be founded in an adequate democratic infrastructure and responsibility of political leaders.
“Therefore, releasing the information will help to address the perception among the citizens that the major political parties in the countries are less transparent and accountable. The lack of transparency and accountability in political finance is seriously undermining the legitimacy and credibility of the democratic and electoral processes, and invariably contributing to denying the citizens the right to effective participation in their own government.
“Transparency, accountability, integrity and independence of political parties is also important to achieve greater transparency in public life, to curb the influence of money in politics, to promote a level playing field, and to remove the risks to the independence of political actors and would-be public office holders and the risks of conflicts of interest, including undue influence and corruption in the funding of political parties.”
SERAP urged the parties to disclose information on the party’s comprehensively documented budget, covering the incomes and expenditures, with proper identification of its sources including those derived from federal, state and other institutions for the campaigns and other operations related to the February 2015 general elections.
Quoting Sections 2, 3(d, V) and 4 of the FOI Act, civil group said: “there is a binding legal duty to ensure that documents containing the necessary information are widely disseminated and made readily available to members of the public through various means. The information being requested does not come within the purview of the types of information exempted from disclosure by the provisions of the FOI Act.”
Consequently, the group opined that treading the path of transparency during campaigns could further promote informed voting by citizens who would have the needed information to make informed choices.
