The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has said it will use a crowdfunding method to finance its activities ahead of the 2027 general elections and prevent affluent individuals from dominating the party through huge donations.
This was announced in an interview with the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Osa Director, on Trust TV yesterday. He said the party was working toward putting in place a finance framework that would enable members and supporters to donate based on their financial capabilities.
The move was aimed at giving ordinary Nigerians a stake in the party’s management and minimising the influence of “moneybags” on its decisions, director stated.
We need to be clever, creative and innovative as to how we fund our party. “Nigerians should have the opportunity to own the party,” he stated.
We do not want a party that is hijacked and financed only by moneybags, because then they will decide what occurs in the party.
The NDC spokesperson said the party was exploring crowdfunding ideas that were employed by the Obidient movement during the 2023 election, with intentions to build a system that would ensure better accountability.
He said contributors would be able to follow the trail of how their money is being used while experienced financial experts and auditors would be involved to monitor the process.
The director said the party has not yet set a limit on individual donations but would make an announcement after talks with key stakeholders.
He said the party had already imposed contribution limitations in its primary elections to control excessive financial influence, saying N10 million for House of Representatives hopefuls and N20 million for Senate aspirants.
He said the party could have taken even greater donations, but had purposefully set the restrictions to avoid the risk of financial influence.
The Director also indicated the NDC would look at large gifts before accepting them, especially where the source of the monies was unclear.
“If somebody wants to give us N500 million, it is for the party leadership to decide to accept it or not,” he stated.
“The party would not want to take money that could expose it to legal or political risk down the line,” he said.
Director stated donations would not be restricted to wealthy donors but on the involvement of common Nigerians.
“We are not saying it should be millions of naira. It might be N1,500 or whatever you can afford,” he said.
He said the NDC would employ credible audit firms operating in Nigeria to manage the cash and produce an account of money gathered and expended.
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