The 2015 election and the future of Nigeria was at the centre of discussions Wednesday in Ilorin, Kwara State, among key stakeholders in the polity at a public lecture on “Challenges of Fraud-Free Elections under a Democratic Dispensation” organised by the Mustapha Akanbi Foundation (MAF).

Both  the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji  Aminu Tambuwal and the Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega painted a lamentable picture of poor funding of the commission, arguing that it could severely impair the ability of his team to deliver the expected credible election in 2015.

Tambuwal, who was chairman of the event, said unless something was done about the funding challenge, Nigeria may need to prepare for something else. Both of them made the observations while responding to questions on the theme of the lecture.

Jega said: “Anytime we mention figures about how much it will cost for election, we are put on the defensive. But since the Honourable Speaker has mentioned the figure, I am duty-bound to mention our figure.  As I speak with you when we saw the budget of N45 billion and we are asked to now provide the details of how N45 billion can be spent in our engagement with the relevant authorities,” he said.

“Look N45 billion is not even sufficient for us to do necessary procurement between now and say November and to pay salaries and other entitlements of staff because all those are parts of this N45 billion.

“The procurement for purely electoral materials and electoral activities alone outside of payment of allowances is more than N45 billion. So how can you get N45 billion for the entire exercise? Like I said, when we had discussion with the budget office, we submitted a budget of N102 billion and yet N45 billion is what is submitted for us. We hope our engagement with government and the National Assembly will provide more funding for us to be able to do a good job.”