“When politics is no longer a mission but a profession, politicians become more self-serving than public servants”
Last Thursday, February 25, 2021, I was one of the two panelists on Politics Nationwide, a network program of Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria. Mrs. Chinwe Nnorom, a director in the bureaucracy of the Peoples Democratic Party, and I were the two guests on the show. The topic of discussion was, “Regulating Defections from Political Parties”, anchored by Joy Makka. The program moderator revealed that Nigeria has had a history of the defection of party members from one political party to another right from the colonial era. In 1951, the first celebrated cross-carpeting episode occurred in Nigeria; which consequently robbed the leader of the National Convention of Nigerians and Cameroons, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, the chance to lead the government’s business of Western Nigeria. This means that the phenomenon has been with us for a whopping 70 years!
Since the inception of this Fourth Republic in 1999, there have been a series of defections of politicians from one political party to the other. Some of them included the defection of a former governor of Oyo State, Senator Rashidi Adewolu Ladoja, from the PDP to Accord Party; former Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala from the PDP to the All Progressives Congress; the recent defection of former governor of Ogun State, Gbenga Daniel, from the PDP to the APC; former governor of Ekiti State, Segun Oni, from the PDP to the APC, and last year’s defection of former Deputy Governor of Ondo State, Agboola Ajayi, from the APC to the PDP and later Zenith Labour Party within a spate of six weeks. There was also the defection of the governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki from the APC to the PDP ahead of the September 19, 2020 governorship election in the state.
Recently, the governor of Ebonyi State, Dave Umahi, who was the former PDP chairman in his state, defected from the PDP to the APC. Former governor Orji Uzor Kalu of Abia State also left the party under which he governed his state for eight years to join the APC which now brought him to the Senate. Ex-governor Peter Obi of Anambra State also left the All Progressive Grand Alliance on whose platform he governed his state for the PDP where he became a running mate to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar in 2019 presidential election. Former Speaker of House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, left the PDP for the APC ahead of the 2015 election, before the 2019 election; but he is back to the PDP.
Recall that in November 2013, five serving PDP governors at that time defected to the APC alongside Atiku. They were Governors Rabiu Kwankwaso of Kano, Aliyu Wamakko of Sokoto, Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara, Murtala Nyako of Adamawa, and Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers. Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State was formerly of the PDP, but he defected to the APC ahead of the 2015 general election and was later to return to the PDP before the 2019 general election.
At the parliamentary level, one has lost count. Former governors Bukola Saraki and Kwakwanso of Kwara and Kano respectively as senators defected from the PDP to the APC and later back to the PDP. In the recent past, Senator Elisha Abbo of Adamawa State in November 2020 defected from the PDP under which he became a senator to the ruling APC. Also, former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, who previously left the PDP for the APC, but went back to the PDP ahead of the 2019 elections and is now back to the APC. Former Senator Musiliu Obanikoro was elected into the Senate in 1999 under the Alliance for Democracy. He later left for the PDP where he became the country’s ambassador to Ghana and minister. He is now in the APC. Senator Iyiola Omisore who was a former Deputy Governor of Osun State under AD defected to the PDP where he became a senator. He later defected to the Social Democratic Party from where he recently moved to the APC.
Just last February 15, 2021, two members of the House of Representatives, Blessing Onuh, daughter of the former Senate President, David Mark, and Yakubu Abdullahi announced their defections via two separate letters read at the plenary by the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila. While Onuh who represents Otukpo/Ohimini Federal Constituency of Benue State joined from APGA, Abdullahi, who represents Bauchi Federal Constituency, came from the People’s Redemption Party. From the examples cited, it is obvious that female politicians appear far more disciplined in terms of membership of a party than their male counterparts.
Funny enough, these politicians usually antagonize opposition parties and call them unprintable names only to go and seek solace under the same much abused and maligned political parties. This lends credence to the axiom that in politics, there is no permanent friends or enemies only permanent interest. Nigeria runs a “food is ready” politics, the kind which my lecturer at the University of Ibadan, Prof. OBC Nwolise, referred to as “Amala Politics”. Thus, like bees are attracted to flowers, politicians are attracted to where their interests will be best served. This is why some analysts often say Nigerian political parties lack ideology. That is not true. All registered political parties in Nigeria have ideologies they espoused in their constitution; however, this ideology is observed in the breach.
The 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) recognizes the right of politicians to change platforms but this has to be done within the ambit of the law. The constitution is silent on defection by those holding executive positions such as the President, Vice President, governors, and deputy governors as well as chairmen of councils and their deputies from the political parties which sponsored their elections.
However, defection by legislators has been prohibited by the 1999 Constitution. For the sake of emphasis, the community reading of Section 68 subsection 1(g) and Section 109 subsection 1(g) of the constitution is of the effect that once a member of a political party is elected under the platform of a political party defects, the member is bound to vacate that seat because the seat belongs to the party that brought them to the parliament. However, there are a couple of provisos being exploited by desperate politicians to fulfill their nomadic ambition. It states that “Provided that his membership of the latter political party is not as a result of a division in the political party of which he was previously a member or a merger of two or more political parties or factions by one of which he was previously sponsored”. The issue is, the Constitution is silent on whether the factionalization of the party has to be at the ward, local government, state, or national level. Oftentimes, these politicians who want to defect are the ones that will engineer the crises within their parties.
Truth be told, defection or cross-carpeting does not augur well for the deepening of democracy in Nigeria. Many political parties can lose their registration due to such defections of the elected members under their party platforms. Recall that the basis upon which the Independent National Electoral Commission can deregister a party according to Section 225A of the Constitution is if the party does not score a threshold of 25 percent of votes in elections into executive positions or if such a party does not have elected members in parliamentary elections.
Right now, given the current amendment of the constitution, it is imperative to state categorically that irrespective of the reason a member of a party may want to defect, those who were elected into either the executive office or legislative assemblies must vacate their seats and allow INEC to conduct bye-election to fill those vacant seats. The reason being that no politician runs for election as an independent in Nigeria. It has been stated in the “locus classicus” case of Rotimi Amaechi versus Celestine Omehia in Rivers State and Yahaya Bello versus Idris Wada in Kogi State when the Supreme Court declared that the electoral mandate belonged to the party and not the candidate. This measure, if taken, will stem the tide of the defections by elected representatives.
Quite unfortunately, since the beneficiaries of this rot in the political system are the ones being relied on to make this amendment, it is very unlikely that the lawmakers will want to shoot themselves in the foot by taking this drastic step. It then means that Nigerians may have to live with the shenanigans of our political gladiators.
