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Opposition
parties in the country are worried over the increasing defection of
elected public office holders, especially the federal and state
legislators, from the parties under which platform they were elected to
others.

They are also
lamenting the failure of the National Assembly to amend the provisions
of the constitution to make it possible for politicians, particularly
lawmakers, to lose their seats if they decamp to other parties.

Sections 68 (g) and
109 (d) of the 1999 Constitution says a member of the Senate or of
House of Representatives or State House of Assembly shall vacate his
seat in the House of which he is a member if “being a person whose
election to the House was sponsored by a political party, he becomes a
member of another political party before the expiration of the period
for which that House was elected: Provided that his membership of the
latter political party is not as a result of division in the political
party of which he was previously a member or of a merger of two or more
political parties or factions by one of which he was previously
sponsored.” During the just-concluded constitution amendment, the
National Assembly had proposed to alter the sections to make it
possible for lawmakers to defect without losing their seat. The
proposal, however, did not get the support of two-third majority of the
36 State Houses of Assembly. Following the rejection, the sections were
left intact.

But officials of
opposition parties who spoke with NEXT said the rate at which elected
office holders are defecting to other parties, particularly the PDP
could turn the country into a one-party state.

They also said that
the failure to change the law, by the federal and state legislators,
during the recently concluded amendment of the 1999 Constitution, has
not helped to deepen the nation’s democracy.

Sabo Muhammad, the
National Director of Publicity of the All Nigerian Peoples Party, said
his party is sad that the amendment of the clauses did not sail through
during the exercise.

“You know that is
what we have been canvassing. The ANPP under the leadership of Edwin
Ume-Ezeoke, and Saidu Umar, from the onset has been in the forefront of
the campaign to curtail the cross carpeting of politicians because ANPP
has suffered much from this unfortunate thing. And so, you don’t expect
us to be happy that the amendment was not carried through,” Mr Muhammad
said.

Money-bag politics

The national
chairman of the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA), Lisu Akerele
described the failure of the amendment as unfortunate. According to
him, the defection of members of a political party to others is
promoting money-bag politics, and it would not give room for
ideology-based political parties to thrive.

“The question of
jumping from one party to another has to do with money politics and
that is the problem we are having,” Mr Akerele said.

“It is not good for
the development of party politics. You have to stand for something and
not for naira, not for money all the time. It is either you are on the
left or on the right. Because of the way people are looking for money
you find that they lack principle and keep moving from one place to
another. Is that how to play politics. How do we grow?” The PPA boss
said if sanity is to be restored to the nation’s polity, the defection
of politicians must be curtailed. He disclosed that his leadership has
been trying to build a serious party to which everyone will not only be
proud to belong but also find it difficult to decamp to other parties.

Ifeanacho
Oguejiofor, the spokesman of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA)
and his counterpart in the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties
(CNPP), Osita Okechukwu also regretted the increasing rate at which
politicians are decamping, adding that it is weakening the opposition
parties.

But the spokesman
of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ahmed Rufai Alkali, whose party
has been a major beneficiary of defections in the recent past, said the
failure to make the amendment was the wish of Nigerians, adding that
the party would abide by whatever law is made by the legislature.

“If that is the
decision of the legislature, we will go along with it,” Mr Alkali told
NEXT. “It is the wish of Nigerians that the National Assembly is trying
to reflect. I think they are handling the amendment well as
representatives of the people. We have confidence in them.”

Jumped ship

Since 2007 when the
present National Assembly was inaugurated, no fewer than 13 senators
and 15 members of the House of Representatives have decamped to other
parties. Among the senators who have dumped their parties are Patrick
Osakwe (Delta), Uche Chukwumerije (Abia), Patricia Akwashiki
(Nasarawa), Satty Gogwin (Plateau), Suleiman Nazif (Bauchi) and Sahabi
Yau (Zamfara). Others are Hassan Gusau (Zamfara), Alphonsus Igbeke
(Anambra) and Otaru Ohize (Kogi).

In the House of Representatives, those that moved are Uche Ekwunife (Anambra),

Ahmed Wase (Plateau), Abubakar Bunu (Zamfara), Mohammed Takoki (Zamfara),

Suleiman Abdul (Kogi), Salihu Abdulkareem (Kogi) and Bello Moriki (Zamfara).

Idris Keta
(Zamfara), Zubairu Dahir (Zamfara), Kareem Abisodun (Oyo), Patrick
Obahiagbon (Edo), Samson Osagie (Edo) and Ibrahim Misau (Bauchi) also
decamped to other parties. All of them still maintain their seats in
the parliament.

Hundreds of state legislatures as well as four state governors have also defected and are still in office.