Obalende to Ajah gives one lots of time to think. So with politics in season, did a rough calculation. How much would it cost to run for the @NGRPresident ?
Back of the envelope, N35 billion.
Back of the envelope, N35 billion.
It could be a bit more or less. Here's how I arrived at it.
There are 111,973 polling units in the country. A party usually fields two agents for each polling unit. At 20k per agent. That comes to N4.7 billion.
I understand agents are also mobilised for nass elections. That's another N4.7 billion. So agent welfare on election Day is nearly N10 billion.
Now let's add rallies. Assuming an an average of N50 million is spent per rally in the 36 states. That's N1.8 billion.
Let's come to media and press. Assuming 10 rallies are televised. At 10 million per live broadcast, That's a N100 million.
Take print media. At 3 mill per page, print adverts could cost a candidate minimum N60 million. Assuming 20 ads are taken.
For social media budget N50 million. Bloggers. Influencers. Across all social media platforms. Elephants in the room may take more.
Move over to logistics. There's a lot of flying involved. So a p jay is needed. At N3 million per trip, At least 1 trip to the 36 states. N108 million.
Let's move to road. 20 car convoy on the road, daily. Regular every day waka. 20k per car or Jeep. That's 400k a day.
Your campaign team in each state has to hit the road daily. Multiply that for the next 90 days. N720 million.
Let's move to the various levels of stomach infrastructure. Starting with the god father's.
Take 4 godfathers per state. N10 million per head. N40 million per state. N1.4 billion.
Senatorial godfathers. N5 million per godfather. 109 districts. Total. N545 million.
LG godfathers. 1 million. 774 lgs. That's N774 million. Now the big one.
28.5 million valid votes were cast during the Presidential elections in 2015. Low ball park figure. 10 million voters get N1000. That's N10 billion.
Now you need to mobilize in each state. Which mobilization ? Traditional rulers. Student unions. Up National and the rest. N200 million or more per state. For 36 states, That's N7.2 billion.
Throw in miscallenous for smaller items. Situation room expenses, salaries for staff other running costs. Say N5 billion..
At this stage my calculator has gotten overwhelmed. I've got about N32 billion.
Anyway anyone can get the drift. Contesting for the Presidency is expensive. This is the point where the billionaires come in.
Having the backing of a few billionaires helps with the cost. A N100 million here and there. A p jay to borrow. For the billionaires, it's simply business.
The office of the Nigerian President is a powerful one. A signature can make one a billionaire.
There are oil blocs to give away. Ministerial positions. Contracts. Rewarding sponsors is not difficult.
Billionaires also need protection. You don't want the government going after you. Ask the yhello Telco.
So for those backing minority candidates, aside the intellectual robustness they bring, possibilities of winning are zero.
