Founder of Centre for Values in Leadership, and one of the leaders of Labour Party (LP), Professor Pat Utomi, yesterday, revealed that the crowdfunding portals Nigerians in the Diaspora planned to launch for the presidential candidate of LP, Mr. Peter Obi, would be unveiled next week. Utomi spoke on Channels TV Politics Today from New York where Peter Obi is on a sensitization tour.
Recall that in a bid to bolster his chances in the 2023 presidential election, Nigerians in the diaspora had formed groups to launch crowdfunding initiatives for Obi. They planned to unveil crowdfunding portals with a target to raise $150 million from Obi’s supporters in the diaspora and N100 billion from those in Nigeria.
A dependable source close to one of Obi’s supporters leading the process had said they were targeting small amounts in contributions from supporters largely at the grassroots to help the LP set up more structures across the country and make the former Anambra State governor a formidable contender in the presidential race.
Crowdfunding is an online financing method that raises money by soliciting small individual investments or contributions from a large number of people. Political crowdfunding is widely considered an acceptable medium for raising funding from grassroots supporters. However, as with political party funding, generally, political parties that engage in crowdfunding have to take the legal framework into account. Most countries, including Nigeria, have regulations for donations and related privacy and transparency issues.
However, Utomi, a former presidential candidate, said he also got support from the diaspora when he contested for the presidency.
Utomi, who is currently in the US with Obi, explained, “When the time is right, the diaspora will give money; they have always given money to campaigns. I ran for president before and I got support from the diaspora in 2006 and 2007 and also in 2011.
“When the time is right, we are going to obviously solicit from Nigerians across the board. We are setting up portals where people can give money.
“The portals would be up next week or so and eventually we would solicit for funds from the diaspora. But right now, we are on a sensitisation tour about what makes democracy work. Right now, Nigeria’s democracy is not working because of the transaction cost that is involved and the trade-off that has to be made.”
Reminded that Section 225 of the Nigerian constitution as well as Section 85 of the amended Electoral Act forbad the sourcing of fund for campaign from abroad, Utomi said, “I am completely aware of what the law says. If we open a portal and say Nigerians who want to support can pay into it, are you saying Nigerians abroad can’t go to the portal and contribute a dollar, after you have prevented them from voting?
“Most African countries allow their diaspora to vote – Ghana, Kenya, and others. In Nigeria, they can’t vote and a lot of Nigerians are excluded from their democracy and now you say they can’t even give N100 to a candidate.
“If there is a law that opposes opening a portal to raise campaign fund, that law is fundamentally flawed and does not deserve the name of law. What we are doing is that we are building a movement that would change Nigeria.”
The former presidential candidate denied the story making the rounds that Obi was charging fees for his engagements with Nigerians in the diaspora, saying, “We are not involved in the fees, if at all there is any.”
Utomi also denied any rift between him and Obi or any LP official over campaign funds, describing the story as “fake news and that is absolutely nonsense.”
He said, “No such thing ever happened. We have never had a conversation around money in any shape or form.”
Credit: The Nigeria Lawyers