2023: Ability To Raise ₦100m, Part Of The Signs Of Capability To Become President – APC Spokesperson

The National Publicity Secretary of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Felix Morka has insisted that the party’s N100m price tag for its 2023 presidential nomination form is not too expensive.

According to the APC spokesperson, any aspirant that can’t muster N100m shouldn’t be aspiring for the nation’s number one political seat.

Morka said apart from the funds, any aspirant interested in such a position must be able to convince people to support his/her ideas.

He argued that it is not compulsory for the aspirant to have the money personally, but he or she should be able to convince supporters and stakeholders to effortlessly raise the required sum.

Naija News reports Morka made the submission on Monday during an interview with Silverbird Television.

On why the party slammed such huge amounts on its forms, the APC spokesperson pointed out that it’s a way of raising funds as there is no statutory funding from anywhere to meet the financial commitments and needs of the party.

“I hate to use the US as an example. The ability to raise funds is a clear criterion whether or not you are eligible to participate at the primaries and the debate especially. You aspire to run for the highest office in the land, you should have some appeal, some reach to members of the party. Sell your ideas, sell your vision. Forty-five million people giving you N1, do the math and see what it comes to. That is a lot of money. We do have that possibility,” he said.

“But for those who have the money already, they are quite welcome to use their own funds. The party has commitments and we do not have any statutory funding as you know.

“Within the context of Nigeria, N100 million is a lot of money. Those who seek the office around the country are expected to have a sufficient base, otherwise why would you aspire to be president, if you are that obscure or unsupportable by your party members and the electorate?”

Speaking on the achievements of the Muhammadu Buhari administration since assuming office in 2015, the APC spokesperson said the current administration has done well.

He added that those who don’t want to see the achievements of the Buhari government are the ones trying hard to badmouth the progress that has been achieved in the past few years.

“The administration has done extremely well on all of those three counts (economy, security and anti-corruption fight) without question. 

“I know there is a lot of smoke out there and sections of our society cloud some of our stellar accomplishments of this government, whether you are looking at infrastructure or the fundamentals of this economy which is by the way projected — GDP to grow by 3.5 percent in the assessment by IMF. That is significant. We went into recession shortly after COVID-19 but we came out of it rather rapidly.

“On this issue of national security, we have challenges no doubt, but the government is doing everything that is possible within the availability of our resources to deal with these problems,” Morka submitted.

This article was originally published on Nigeria News