2027 Elections: SERAP urges INEC to publish political donation limits, party finances
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Joash Amupitan, to disclose whether the Commission has exercised its statutory power to prescribe limits on political contributions under Section 91 of the Electoral Act, 2026.
SERAP also urged INEC to publish the applicable limits and widely communicate them to political parties, candidates, donors and the Nigerian public. The organisation made the demand in a Freedom of Information request dated August 22, 2026, and signed by its Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare. SERAP urged INEC to disclose the systems, personnel and procedures it has put in place to monitor, investigate and enforce compliance with political contribution and campaign expenditure limits during the ongoing 2027 electoral process.
It also asked the electoral commission to disclose its methodology for monitoring political financing, including arrangements for identifying and addressing cash and in-kind contributions, digital and social-media financing, third-party expenditure and donations through intermediaries that could potentially circumvent statutory limits. SERAP said greater transparency in political financing was essential to ensuring that the 2027 elections are conducted on a level playing field and that citizens are able to make free and informed political choices.
The organisation said, “INEC’s constitutional responsibility is not simply to receive financial statements from political parties. The Constitution requires the Commission to examine political-party finances, conduct necessary investigations and report to the National Assembly.” According to SERAP, publishing these reports would enable Nigerians to know whether INEC’s constitutional and statutory responsibilities had been effectively discharged. The organisation said voters, journalists and civil-society groups could not effectively scrutinise political financing if the applicable limits were not easily accessible or if there was no publicly known mechanism for monitoring compliance.
It added that the increasing monetisation of Nigeria’s elections, alongside the potential misuse of state institutions, posed serious threats to democratic integrity and electoral competition. SERAP said the requested information would enable citizens to identify excessive, undisclosed or potentially illicit political financing before it could distort electoral competition, rather than only after votes had been cast. It said effective political-finance regulation was an important safeguard for constitutional democracy, equality of political participation, freedom of expression and association, electoral integrity and citizens’ meaningful participation in public affairs.
