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The National
Executive Committee of the National Movement of Progressive Party
(NMPP) has approved the sale of its presidential nomination form for
N1.5 million.

It also fixed the
forms for the governorship election at N1million; Senate N800,000;
House of Representatives, N500,000; and state houses of assembly
N200,000. Lawrence Atuana, the party’s National Chairman, who announced
this in Abuja yesterday, said that female aspirants are exempted from
the fees as a way of encouraging them to vie for elective positions in
the country. He stated that the committee, which met on Tuesday, urged
eligible Nigerians to participate in the January 2011 voters’
registration as “power resides with the people”. “The outcome of the
elections must reflect the wish of the electorate,” he said.

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The committee also
asked the National Assembly to expedite action on the minimum wage bill
to avert further national strike by the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC).
It, however, expressed dismay that the National Assembly members have
applied delay tactic in handling crucial national issues and bills,
contrary to the lightening speed in which they pass bills affecting
them including their jumbo pay that made them the highest paid
legislators in the world. The committee also called on the federal
government to review and increase the pension being paid to the
nation’s senior citizens who had served the country. “The recent
screening of pensioners in the country showed the extent the government
has neglected these retired civil servants.”

It also frowned at the rate of poverty in the country in the midst
of abundance, and urged various governments to take steps to alleviate
the sufferings of the citizenry in accordance with section 14 (2)b of
the 1999 Constitution as amended which provides; “the security and
welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government.” It
also condemned the high rate of corruption in the country and urged the
anti-corruption to intensify efforts with the view to “arresting and
prosecuting those who looted our common patrimony and use the
ill-gotten wealth to oppress the masses.”