Drama always around the corner

Let's start with our first story.

I mean, we know the next general elections are coming up in 2027.

Well, having the Nigerian Economic Summit group issue a warning and stating that the excess pre-election spending can threaten Nigeria's economic stability and they are urging political parties Politicians who are coming to office to be more disciplined in their spending ahead of the 2027 elections.

Why? I mean, what are the facts? What does the report state? And how can Nigeria control its election spending? Because, I mean, we know that election season is about, I mean, campaigns also, you know, need money.

And there are a lot of funds that are raised for election campaigns.

as the campaign season has been opened, we're going to see a lot of money go into the economy.

So what effect is this going to have on the economy as stated by the Nigeria Economic Summit group? How can politicians restrict their spending and how can Nigeria as a government ensure that not a lot of money goes into elections?

Okay, so first things first is understanding the reason why NEHD is making this claim, why they are making this claim out now.

The reason is because of the potential impact of massive spending on inflation.

So they are envisioning a situation in which trillions of Naira will be spent And when trillions of Naira goes into the economy in such a short period of time, in such a very short period of time, it's going to spike cash flow.

Basically, money supply is going to go up, and inadvertently we will see inflation go up, and the cost of goods and services basically go up, and overall affects the reforms in that sense.

But here's some of the facts.

Some of the facts are, ELECTRA at 2026 has pegged campaign spending at certain levels.

One, it pegged campaign spending for the presidential candidates at $10 billion.

For the states, it pegged it at $3 billion.

Then for the National Assembly, which is the Senate and the House of Reps, the campaign spending is pegged at 500 million.

Then for the State House of Assembly, campaign spending is pegged at 100 million Naira.

The point here is that while the Electoral Act contains provisions to sort of cap campaign spending.

The reality is that there's a laissez-faire attitude to it.

Plus, the language of the law is actually very funny.

The language of the law is very funny.

The language of the provision in the Act is very funny.

The provision says that presidential candidates says nothing about parties.

And it also pegs the donation that an individual can make to a candidate in an election.

For instance, 500 million there.