The Chairman of the Electoral Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association (ECNBA), Mr. Oluseun Abimbola SAN has said that the committee may not exhaust its N123 million budget as approved by the NBA National Executive Council.

Responding to concerns by stakeholders that the budget may be bloated, Abimbola told CITY LAWYER to “recognize that this is just a budget, an estimation of costs, so we do not have to necessarily exhaust it,” adding that “We are accountable people.”

Documents made available to CITY LAWYER show that the forthcoming elections may gulp about N123 million, being the amount approved by NBA-NEC at its recent emergency meeting in Yola. The amount is over N88 million higher than the N34.878 approved for the elections two years ago.

Aside from N102,704,040 which is the Naira component of the budget, another $15,000 slated for the “ICT Service Provider” completes the approved budget. With a conservative Naira exchange rate of N1,380 to the dollar, this component stands at N20.7 million, bringing the total expenditure to N123,404,040.

CITY LAWYER analysis shows that while “ECNBA Office/Admin” jumped from N8.044 million in 2022 to over N15.8 million this year, ECNBA Voters’ Education/Sensitization Outreach for the three zones will gulp about N6.3 million, up from N2.76 million two years ago.

It was observed that the three zones had a flat rate of N2.1 million this year unlike in 2022 when the Northern and Eastern zones cost N960,000 while the Western Zone cost about one-third of that figure, standing at N340,000.

Return tickets for ECNBA members, airport taxi, accommodation, lunch and contingency will gulp N36.8 million while “Technical/ICT” jumped from N17,978,000 to N30,550,000 including N25,000,000 for the Technical Support Consultant (TSC). The TSC fee was N15 million in 2022.

An additional component of this budget head is the “ICT Service Provider, E-voting Platform with Multiaccess Functionality (Email, SMS, etc)” for which $15,000,000 (sic) has been provided. The service cost the association $15,000 in 2022.

The sum of N9.2 million has been set aside for “Aspirants’ Debate” while N500,000 is billed to be spent on “Social Media (dissemination of ECNBA Notices).”

Analysts have queried some aspects of the budget, especially the “ECNBA Office/Admin” component which shot up by about 100 per cent from N8.044 million in 2022 to over N15.8 million this year, notwithstanding that the electoral committee may have inherited a functional office from its predecessor. 

While the fee for the Technical Support Consultant (TSC) was N135 million in 2022, the amount jumped by N10 million to N25 million.

It was also observed that the three (NBA) zones had a flat rate of N2.1 million this year unlike in 2022 when the Northern and Eastern zones cost N960,000 while the Western Zone cost about one-third of that figure, standing at N340,000.

Responding to these concerns, Abimbola told CITY LAWYER that the budgetary figure is a mere estimate, saying: “What we have is merely a budget, not an invoice of cost as you seem to infer.”

On whether no facilities were handed over by the 2022 electoral committee, the ECNBA helmsman said: “Contrary to your indication, we did not inherit any functional office as the last ECNBA operated from Abuja ICC borrowed facilities.”

Speaking to the issue of the N10 million jump in the TSC fee, the senior lawyer said: “Note also the astronomical inflation that has occurred since 2022 and prices of all components that have more than tripled since then, and put your thoughts and comments in perspective.”

The NBA Election is scheduled to hold on July 20, 2024.

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