ABUSE OF STATE FISCAL RESOURCES IN THE 2023 PRESIDENTIAL AND NATIONAL ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS

State Administrative Resources are public resources at the disposal of the three tiers of government for the day-to-day performance of state duties and functions. These resources could be financial, administrative/institutional, media, regulatory, coercive, legislative, etc.

The abuse of State Administrative Resources (SAR) has been a common practice amongst incumbents either contesting for elections or mobilising support for an adopted candidate. The use of these resources gives the incumbent an undue advantage over other candidates. For financial resources, public funds secured through kickbacks and over-invoicing of contracts can be used to finance the campaign of the incumbents. Public funds directly stolen from the budget can also be used to fund campaigns.

Misuse of administrative resources undermines fundamental democratic values which are considered the very essence of civilised societies.

By Section 95 of the Electoral Act, 2022, it is provided that,

“(1): A candidate and his or her party shall campaign for the elections in accordance with such rules and regulations as may be determined by the commission.

(2) State apparatus including the media shall not be employed to the advantage or disadvantage of any political party or candidate at any election.”

Furthermore, the 2013 Political Parties Code of Conduct had provided that, “All parties shall discourage their members in government from using their power of incumbency to the disadvantage of other parties or their candidates during campaigns.” The earlier 2011 Political Parties Code of Conduct in paragraph 9 stated that all political parties shall separate party business from government business. As such, political parties shall not utilise public resources for any party activity and shall not permit any of its sponsored candidates holding public office to use public resources for the purpose of political campaigning in elections.

In this report, we detailed some instances where the state’s fiscal resources were deployed to advance the interest of political parties and the parties the government in power chose to support in the 2023 Presidential and National Assembly Elections in Nigeria.

ABUSE OF STATE FISCAL RESOURCES IN THE 2023 PRESIDENTIAL AND NATIONAL ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS