EDITORIAL: Testing the Constitution, with the rash of defections

Defections have seized political parties by the scruff of the neck. It is a phenomenon the Supreme Court once described as “painful, unconscionable and immoral” in a particular case 18 years ago. But none of the defections presently has been as seismic as Governor Sheriff Oborevwori’s leading of a caravan of party bigwigs and lawmakers, last week, from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). He waffled as he tried to rationalise his action.

In December 2024, a member of the House of Representatives, Erhriatake Ibori-Suenu, daughter of James Ibori – a former governor and influential political figure in the state, had, along with four lawmakers of Labour Party’s extraction, defected to the APC. A senator, Ned Nwoko, from the same state had earlier dumped the PDP for the APC.

The governor said other PDP legislators from the state at the National Assembly would officially defect during plenary, once the Assembly resumes from its Easter break. The PDP won 10 seats there in the 2023 polls. An elaborate ceremony was held by the APC in Asaba to welcome the defectors, which included the immediate past governor and PDP vice-presidential candidate in the last election, Ifeanyi Okowa. The Vice President, Kashim Shettima, presided over this telling political realignment.

In Kano State, a senator, Sumaila Kawu, elected on the platform of New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), has also defected to the APC. The reason he gave for his action was that, “all politics is local and my primary concern has always been, and remains, the welfare of my immediate constituency.” There are countless other cases in both the federal and state legislatures across the country.

Governor Oborevwori said the move was the product of an all-inclusive stakeholders meeting: “We…agreed we will all move together. All our members in the National Assembly; in the next resumption (sitting), they have agreed to defect on the floor of the House. The Speaker (state assembly) is here; heaven will not fall. All of them will also (defect) because it is normal. There is nothing wrong. I was a lawmaker, I was a presiding officer; we have a lot of problems; so, we have a reason, we have justification to move. All the PDP ward chairmen and 500 councillors also joined the bandwagon.”

However, the PDP is displeased by this turn of events. Its National Working Committee (NWC), chaired by the Acting National Chairman, Umar Damagun, rose from an emergency meeting on Tuesday over the matter, with a directive to its National Legal Adviser to head for court. This is a well-taken decision that should be treated with a sense of urgency. This is more so, as the mandates, or votes cast, belong to political parties, not candidates, going by extant judicial decisions.

Let us be clear, every citizen has the constitutional right of freedom of association – to belong, form groups, including political parties, as expressly stated in Section 40 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended. But for elected representatives in the legislature, such a right is not absolute. It is guided by provisos, which should be respected and enforced in a functional democracy.

Since the Fourth Republic began in 1999, we have experienced a deluge of defections, which did not consider the sanctity of the provisions of Section 68 (1) (g), Section 109 (1) (g) of the 1999 Constitution, and Section 109 (1) (g), in relation to state assemblies, which spell out the procedures to be followed when necessary.

Section 68 (1) states: “A member of the Senate or the House of Representatives shall vacate his seat in the House of which he is a member if (g) being a person whose election to the House was sponsored by a political party, he becomes a member of another party before the expiration of the period for which that House was elected.”

It then adds 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 of a merger of two or more political parties or factions by one of which he was previously sponsored.”

Further, Section 68 (2) provides that the President of the Senate or the Speaker, House of Representatives, “shall give effect to the provisions of subsection (1) of this section” provided that both principal officers of the two chambers or a member shall first present evidence satisfactory to the House that any of the provisions of that subsection had become applicable to a member.

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The state houses of assembly are not spared the ritual of defections too.

There are several court pronouncements on this matter. Unfortunately, the President of the Senate and the Speakers of the federal and state houses of assembly have always neutered their decisions on the matter, by their failures to give effect to the provision of the constitution as stipulated in 68 (2). This is not healthy for the consolidation of our democracy.

Virtually every defector seeks pseudo refuge under some purported crises in his or her respective party, whose gravity – however – do not meet the constitutional prescriptions, when subjected to scrutiny. In the case of Ifedayo Abegunde vs Ondo State House of Assembly, the court declared that the alleged “Fictionalisation, Fragmentation, Splintering or Division” must be to such a degree that it is impossible or impracticable for a political party to function, to justify a defection. And, this is at the national level only.

Intra-party wranglings might exist in the PDP, but we doubt if the party has become split down the middle for the defected members to have valid grounds for their action. This is why the party and the courts should act expeditiously on this matter. Where the Senate President or Speakers are beclouded by partisanship, PREMIUM TIMES believes that the courts should compel them to action towards ending this perennial rape of the constitution.

The reason, for instance, the late senator, Ifeanyi Ubah, gave for his defection to APC on the floor of the Senate in December 2024, puts this issue in bold relief. He had cited “irreconcilable differences” between him and the leadership of the Young Progressives Party (YPP). This excuse is incongruous with the provisions of the Constitution. Yet, he did not vacate his seat. Instead, he was received with open arms by the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, who read his letter of defection.

Unlike the lawmakers, whose grounds for defection is suspect, that of Oborevwori is irredeemable in view of the extant declaration of the Court of Appeal with regard to Dave Umahi’s defection to the APC from the PDP as Ebonyi State’s serving governor. The court underlined the fact that the constitution referred only to lawmakers on defection, while chiding his action. Similarly, the apex court, in 2007, viewed then Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s defection from the PDP to the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), with reproach, even though it described the move as legal. That was when he contested the presidential election against the wish of his boss, President Olusegun Obasanjo.

The PDP litigation is most likely to reach the apex court. As a policy court, its decisions should be clear, firm and enforceable. Reckless defections of legislators trample on the sensibilities of voters that elected them. Without check, they make mockery of this democracy; and the courts should help Nigeria to halt this anomaly now.