Nigerian Political Parties and Investment Opportunities

-

With the coming into force of Electoral Act 2010 (as amended) which abolished public funding of political parties, many of the parties have been facing hard times meeting their financial needs. Even when the public grant was in place, it was insignificant considering the enormity of resources needed to fund political party administration. This development seems to have made some of the political parties to become creative and ingenious in surviving the harsh economic conditions of the country. A news report in one of Nigeria’s national newspaper, Sunday Punch of June 17, 2012 broke the news that the Peoples Democratic Party is planning to establish PDP Holding Company Ltd to hold and negotiate the interests of the party in all investments and business arrangements. Through the company, PDP hope to acquire oil and telecommunication licenses to generate revenue for the party. Other areas where the party hopes to generate incomes include real estate and the establishment of print and electronic media companies. The report observed that this was part of the revenue generation and investments strategies of the party, which was proposed by its National Financial Secretary, Mr. Bolaji Anani to the National Chairman of the party, Dr. Bamanga Tukur. The party planned to “raise short, medium and long term loans from financial institutions to fund the party’s investments and programmes with minimum risk.

The newspaper did a features story on the issue in its edition of June 24, 2012 where it sought opinions of some people on the issue. Their responses were diverse. Was the party right in wanting to set up a holding company? I would say yes. The country’s law is in full support of this. Section 225 of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria as well as section 89 of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended) both requires political parties to submit to INEC statement of assets and liabilities. However, parties are forbidden from holding or possessing assets or funds from outside Nigeria. More pointedly, INEC on page 7 of its Political Party Finance Handbook 2011 says “Political parties may obtain funds for their operations from the following only: (a) Membership fee (b) Income generated by property owned by political party (c) Profit from the income of the enterprises owned by political party (d) Public funding i.e. grant from the state; and (e) Contributions from legal entities and natural persons.” It is hoped that other registered political parties will follow the example of PDP and set up their investment enterprises to enhance their party funding. However, political parties must do this within the ambit of the law.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Wishing you the best of 2010

-
Year 2009 will be off in few hours, it’s probably 2010 already in Australia. To you all my fans who have been encouraging me through your constructive and largely positive feedback, I say a big thank you. In 2009, I have many reasons to thank the Lord. In April, I clocked 40 and in October, it dawned on me that it’s been 19 years since my first piece was published in Daily Sketch. Today, the little acorn has grown to a large oak. In 2009, I spread my tentacles wider and added four more platforms to publishing my articles. They are The Nation, Daily Sun, Daily Independent and Next. Two Magazines/Newsletters, Women Advocate and Voters News also sought my permission to publish some of my published articles in their media. On the whole, to date, I have been published by 17 national newspapers and 11 magazines and newsletters. In July 2009, with the influence and inspiration from a friend, Sola Adetunji, I established my own blog from where those who love my writings can now read my views o
Read more

Insecurity: Nigerians as endangered specie

-
  Introduction Section 14(2)(b) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria says security and welfare of the citizens shall be the primary purpose of government. In 2024, neither of these two are being enjoyed by Nigerians. Compatriots feel unsafe in their own country and as for welfare, it’s a case of what legendary Afrobeat musician, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti call “Suffering and smiling”. Once upon a time, armed robbery, kidnapping and other crimes were largely restricted to the urban centres with many promising to run and hide in their villages from night marauders and criminals. Sadly, nowhere is safe any longer. The grassroot, I mean people in the communities, are facing so much unrest from criminal elements that they are now leaving their ancestral land in droves to seek refuge in towns and cities that have no succour for them. Truth be told, Nigeria is fast sliding to what the great political philosopher, Thomas Hobbes described in his 1651 famous book titled Levia
Read more

Now that Dangote refinery has commenced production

-
  The heart-warming news broke on Friday, January 12, 2024. The tale is that $18.5bn Dangote Refinery and Petrochemical Company, which was commissioned on Monday, May 22, 2023, has finally commenced production seven months after it was inaugurated with pomp and circumstance in Lagos. Recall that during the commissioning exercise, former Central Bank of Nigeria governor, Godwin Emefiele, said inter alia, that in ensuring the successful completion of the project, the CBN provided over N125bn to cover the domestic currency requirements of the venture, while also ensuring the availability of foreign exchange to pay for the importation of some of the machinery. He projected that the Dangote refinery could earn Nigeria foreign exchange savings of between $25bn and $30bn yearly, stressing that the impact of the savings would be directly reflected in Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserves by reducing the pressure on the country’s balance of payments. Given the processing capacity of 650,000 bar
Read more