…Spending limits increase may fuel corruption — Stakeholders
With political campaigns for the 2027 general election scheduled to begin on Wednesday, political parties and their candidates are entering one of the most expensive phases of the electoral process, amid mounting concerns over where the billions of naira required to prosecute the contests will come from.
The funding question is becoming increasingly contentious as the Electoral Act 2026 has substantially raised the statutory limits on election spending. Political actors, civil society groups and anti-corruption agencies have warned that the rising cost of securing political power could create room for corruption and diversion of public resources.
Under the Electoral Act 2026, presidential candidates can spend up to N10 billion, against the previous N5 billion limit, while the governorship ceiling has risen from N1 billion to N3 billion. The limit for Senatorial candidates increased from N100 million to N500 million, while House of Representatives candidates can now spend up to N250 million, against N70 million previously.
State House of Assembly candidates can spend N100 million, compared to N30 million previously, while Area Council chairmanship and councillorship candidates can spend N60 million and N10 million, respectively.
Opeyemi Bamidele, Senate Leader, said the upward review was designed to reflect prevailing economic realities and the rising cost of political campaigns while retaining statutory controls over election expenditure.
But the new ceilings have intensified a more fundamental question on how candidates would raise the enormous sums required to compete, and what those providing the money would expect in return?
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The scale of the financial barrier was already evident prior to the parties’ primaries. Ahead of the 2027 primaries, the APC sold its expression of interest and nomination forms at N100 million for the presidency, N50 million for governorship, N20 million for the Senate, N10 million for the House of Representatives and N5 million for State House of Assembly positions.
The African Democratic Congress (ADC) initially pegged its presidential expression of interest and nomination forms at N100 million before reducing the combined fee to N90 million. The revised fees were N30 million for governorship, N10 million for Senate, N5 million for the House of Representatives and N2 million for State House of Assembly.
The Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) pegged its combined expression of interest and nomination fees at N60 million for the presidency, N30 million for governorship, N8 million for Senate, N6 million for the House of Representatives and N2.5 million for State House of Assembly. Sixteen ‘small’ parties equally generated huge sums of money from the sale of forms.
The corruption question
Ola Olukoyede, chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has provided perhaps, the clearest indication of the scale of the problem.
Olukoyede disclosed in Ilorin, Kwara State, that some governorship aspirants spent between N20 billion and N30 billion to secure electoral victory, warning that the enormous cost of political competition was becoming a threat to democratic governance and a driver of corruption.
Speaking at the inaugural High-Level Guest Speakers’ Series organised by the Centre for Peace and Strategic Studies, University of Ilorin, Olukoyede said huge investments made by politicians to win elections could create pressure on successful candidates to recover their expenditure after assuming office.
That, he warned, could lead to the diversion of public resources and further institutionalise corruption.
The EFCC chairman also said the commission remained committed to tackling vote-buying, financial inducement and other practices capable of compromising the credibility of the electoral process.
Jibrin Ibrahim, professor of Political Science and senior fellow at the Centre for Democracy and Development, has similarly warned that the growing influence of money is turning elections into contests increasingly dominated by wealthy politicians, godfathers and political financiers.
Ibrahim argued that poverty had made many voters vulnerable to financial inducement, turning the ballot into a commodity that could be bought and sold. He said the trend was weakening the legitimacy of the democratic system, encouraging voter apathy and creating the perception that electoral outcomes are increasingly determined by Nigerians with money, influence and access to political power.
Battle for campaign financing
For President Bola Tinubu and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), pundits say the financing equation is complicated by the advantage of incumbency. The APC controls the federal government and 31 of the 36 state governments, giving the party access to a nationwide political structure, elected officials and a broad network of political supporters.
Dayo Israel, APC National Youth Leader and member of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC), acknowledged that the ruling party itself would depend on support from the presidency and APC governors to prosecute its 2027 campaign.
“The party doesn’t have money. We know that the party has to rely on the administration, the president and our governors to support us. That is the reality,” Israel said during the unveiling of the APC Youth Resource Centre in Abuja.
The opposition parties face a more difficult financial landscape. Dele Momodu, an African Democratic Congress (ADC) chieftain and supporter of Atiku Abubakar, has argued that the financial disparity between the opposition and Tinubu’s camp is enormous.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today, Momodu said, “Atiku does not have one per cent of Tinubu’s war chest,” Momodu said. He argued that the President’s political influence and access to resources gave him a substantial financial advantage. The allegation has sharpened concerns about the impact of incumbency on the competitiveness of the 2027 election.
Bolaji Abdullahi, National Publicity Secretary of the ADC, also accused APC governors of diverting deductions from Federation Account allocations to finance President Tinubu’s 2027 re-election campaign, alleging that more than N800 billion had been raised through the deductions.
Felix Morka, National Publicity Secretary of the APC, however, dismissed the allegation as baseless. The issue of public resources and political campaigns has also attracted the attention of civil society organisations.
Andrew Mamedu, Country Director of ActionAid Nigeria, has called for investigations into allegations that serving governors were mobilising public resources for political campaigns. Mamedu argued that using state resources for partisan political activities would be particularly troubling at a time of economic hardship, debt pressures, inadequate public services and widespread poverty.
ActionAid also called for impeachment where governors are found to have diverted public funds for political campaigns.
Adding another twist to the campaign-financing intrigues, Atiku Abubakar, ADC presidential candidate, recently disclosed that an unknown donor deposited campaign funds into his private account.
Kingsley Chinda, Rivers State governorship candidate and former Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, described the monetisation of political party nominations as arguably the “most corrupt phase” of Nigeria’s electoral process.
Chinda questioned why nomination forms should cost millions of naira, arguing that the practice creates a financial barrier even before candidates begin campaigning. For many aspirants, the financial burden begins with securing a party ticket and continues through mobilisation, transportation, logistics, media advertising, agents, digital campaigns and voter outreach.
Chief Peter Ameh, senatorial candidate of the NDC and former national chairman of the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), told BusinessDay that his party intended to rely heavily on grassroots mobilisation and donations from ordinary citizens.
“If people are interested in a political movement, they will support it,” Ameh said. He argued that the level of public engagement gave him confidence that the NDC campaign could be largely people-funded.
Meanwhile, multiple sources said investigations by the EFCC and Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) have made some potential donors more reluctant to openly finance political activities.
The PDP also faces the challenge of replicating its historic fundraising capacity. The party generated about N21 billion at a 2014 fundraising event ahead of the 2015 election, although it subsequently clarified that the money was not exclusively for then-President Goodluck Jonathan’s campaign and was also intended for party projects. However, the situation looks different today.
Jackson Lekan Ojo, political analyst, told BusinessDay that “many financiers are adopting a wait-and-see approach until the political landscape becomes clearer.”
For analysts, the central concern is no longer simply how much candidates are legally permitted to spend, but how the money will be raised and whether campaign financing will translate into obligations after elections.
With campaigns beginning on Wednesday, the scramble for political financing is therefore moving from the background to the centre of the 2027 contest. The question confronting Nigeria ahead of 2027 is consequently not only who will win the election, but who will finance the race, how much will be spent and what will be demanded in return.
