Dr Kayode Ajulo, a Constitutional Lawyer has described the emergence of large number of presidential aspirants for the 2023 general elections as a sign of good omen for the country.
Ajulo told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Abuja that the large number of aspirants was healthy for Nigerian democracy.
The legal practitioner said that he was not surprised at the number of the aspirants jostling to serve the country, adding that the number was in fact a far cry from his expectations.
“This is Nigeria, the most populous and powerful black nation in the world with over 200 million people and 400 diverse ethnic nationalities and tribes.
“Anyone with good fortune could afford the price and by the way they’re only aspirants and buying the nomination form.
“It is not an automatic process that will translate to fielding such aspirants in the primaries because they will have to be screened first,” he said.
He said that after the purchase of form, it was expected that those not qualified would be screened out by the political parties.
He said that for those that passed the screening, the stage would be cleared for horse-trading among them, ahead of primary election.
According to him, from our preliminary examination of the aspirants only three aspirants in the All Progressives Congress (APC) are constitutionally qualified to run for the office of the President.
Ajulo however, declined to elaborate further on the issue.
He said that in 1993, 30 aspirants bought nomination form for the Presidential forms on the platform of Social Democratic Party (SDP).
“In 2007, 27 presidential aspirants bought forms on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) platform. Do we have 27 or 30 aspirants yet in APC, so why the worry?
“If the aspirants come out to donate N100million each to the party in a fund-raising, tongues would wag, hence this route,” he said.
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