PTCIJ convenes debate on campaign financing ahead of 2023 elections

The laws surrounding campaign financing and the road to its implementation will be the theme of the upcoming webinar of the Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism (PTCIJ), which is being executed through its Media in Nigerian Election (MiNE) Project.

Mboho Eno, Programme manager in charge of advocacy and accountability at PTCIJ, said “with the current push to reform the electoral act of Nigeria, there is no time more important than this to discuss campaign financing in Nigeria. There is an imperative to have those conversations that would aid create a system which would allow all parties have a level playing ground to compete in preparation for the 2023 elections.”

With the electoral laws not being strictly adhered to, some political parties have exploited the loopholes in the law, creating an environment where moneybags have overrun the political atmosphere, and ideology and performance no longer hold sway in the elections

Issues like how the electoral law failed to put a limit on the amount of money organisations can donate thus creating a loophole for political parties to exploit, and what the law needs to do to strengthen the stakeholder’s ability to enforce accountability will top the discussion.

The panelists on this webinar include Regina Omo-Agege, a retired INEC director in charge of political party monitoring and liaison; Sidi Ali, National Public Secretary of the Allied People’s Movement (APM), and Sani Zorro, former president of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) and West African Journalist Association (WAJA). Moderated by media icon Dapo Olorunyomi, the debate promises to be a conversation you would not want to miss.

The webinar is set to hold on June 3, 2021 from 11:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. Click on this link to register for the webinar: http://bit.ly/MiNEwebinar. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.