2023 election: I spent less than N400 million for campaign-Sowore
… Releases breakdown of ACC campaign income, expenses
The candidate of the African Action Congress in the 2023 presidential election, Omoyele Sowore, has released a detailed breakdown of the party’s income and expenses during the electioneering process.
The breakdown includes campaign donations, sources of funding and expenditures carried out by the Sowore Political Action Committee during the campaigns.
This was contained in a statement issued Tuesday, signed by the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Femi Adeyeye, and made available to the media.
According to the statement, the breakdown of income and expenditure released is in line with the party’s campaign practise as well as for transparency and accountability purposes.
The statement reads, “In line with the best campaign practice and the spirit of accountability as we hold dear in the African Action Congress, the Sowore Political Action Committee has released the final breakdown of the 2023 Presidential election campaign donations, sources of funding and expenditure.
“Recall that the committee gave monthly updates during the campaign, and this is not the first time the Committee will be releasing a breakdown such as this.
“In 2019, the AAC candidate also released a complete breakdown of campaign expenses, the first recorded in the history of electioneering campaign in Nigeria’s history.
“The Sowore Presidential Campaign Organization then, in a novel manner, released detailed accounts of money received and spent, which was published on major dailies in the country.
“Asides monetary contributions, we can not quantify the human resources put into the campaign by Nigerians who supported us day and night. “Those who stood their ground and gave their time to toeing the path of honour and integrity we cannot thank you all enough.”
Speaking further, the party challenged other Presidential candidates to emulate Sowore and the AAC by also compiling and releasing a detailed breakdown of income and expenditures, including donations and other sources of funding.
The statement added, “The Campaign Organization also seizes this medium to challenge other Presidential candidates, including the one who was sworn in, to release their campaign financials, that’s if any books were kept at all.”
The party expressed hope that candidates who sought public donations would be sincere and honest enough to give a proper and accurate account of the donations received in Nigeria and in the Diaspora.
“We sincerely hope that those in particular who sought public donations during the campaign season will also show Nigerians the donations they got from the campaign donors across Nigeria and beyond.”
He added that the leadership recruitment process in Nigeria will be transparent only with people who run an open campaign policy.
“We can’t have a clean leadership recruitment process in this country with people who shroud their campaign spending in secrecy.
“We believe that those who can’t keep books of campaign expenses and transparently account for the expenses incurred can’t run a country like Nigeria properly”, the statement concluded.
Giving a breakdown of the party’s income and expenditure during the electioneering process, the party said its net cash flow during the period was N46,871.50, while the gross inflow was N40,146,647.53, and total payments during electioneering was N40,193,546.03. It added that the net cash flow was the balance after deducting total payments from the gross inflow.
It said that the opening bank balance was N136,972.71; Bank Balance as of March 31, 2023, N90.101,21; expenses from personal funds, N1,805,000 (printing cost N200,000, conveyance N1,535,000, maintenance cost N70,000); expenses from donation (N38,388,546.03) + expenses from personal funds (N1,805,000.00) = N40,193,546.03); total payments during the electioneering (campaign action/party activities – N5,030,000.00, Subscription – N1,233,623.89, Printing cost – N3,398,000.00, Media logistics – N2,500,000.00, Conveyance – N22,600,820.00, Security and other volunteers – N2,290,000.00, Maintenance cost – N1,697,000.00, Consumables – N20,000.00, Welfare – N1,343,800.00, Bank charges during the period – N80,302.14); and gross inflows – N40,146,674,53 (Gross receipts from donors during electioneering – N38,341,674.53 and Candidate’s personal funds available for use – N1,805,000.00).