From 2015 to date, at least 40 persons have defected from one political party to another, ranging from members of the national assembly, senators, past governors, and current state governors.
Political defection is the change of party allegiance from a party where a person (politician) belonged to another political party, political defections are usually out of self-interest. Reasons for political defections have been attributed to political interest, the pursuit of political ambition, internal party division, lack of transparency in party processes, lack of political ideology, and political agenda.
Ever since democracy kickstarted in Nigeria, democracy has faced a series of problems, from conflicts between parties to illiteracy, and corruption. Political defections are one of the challenges to effective democracy and a functional political system in Nigeria.
The first known and recognized political defection in Nigeria was in 1951 when members of the National Council for Nigeria and Cameroon (NCNC) defected and joined the Action group(AG) in order to deny Nnamdi Azikwe the power of the majority making Obafemi Awolowo become the premier of the western region. Other major defections have also taken place during the course of democracy in Nigeria.
An avalanche of defections have hit the Nigerian political system in the last decade, mostly movements between the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressive Congress (APC) which are the two major parties in Nigeria.
The 2013 political crisis which occurred in PDP launched an avalanche of political defections in the past decade in Nigeria when 37 house of representative members defected from the PDP to the APC. This left PDP with 171 members from 208 members, and leaving APC with 174 members up from 137 members.
The majority of candidates move from one party to another in order to secure tickets or when they feel injustices have been done to them in their political parties. A typical scenario is that of Atiku Abubakar who defected to ACN from the PDP before the 2011 election, then in order to secure the presidential ticket in 2015, he defected from the ACN to the APC and back to PDP ahead of the 2019 election. Atiku Abubakar lost in these elections to Goodluck Jonathan, and Muhammadu Buhari twice.
Another instance of politicians leaving their parties to secure tickets to political seats is in the case of Samuel Ortom and Godwin Obaseki who both were under the APC during their first terms as governors of Benue and Edo states respectively but defected to the PDP in order to secure the ticket for the governorship position which extended their tenures as governors of their respective states.
Defections have also had a number of deterrents over the past decade. One of such is the case of the Ebonyi state governor David Umahi and his deputy, Kelechi Igwe, and 15 lawmakers who defected from the People’s Democratic Party to the All Progressives Congress and were sacked after the Federal High court, Abuja made a judgement on March 8th, 2022, which declared that votes during any elections in Nigeria belonged to political parties and not the candidates.
Another example is that of the governor of Rivers State, Ben Ayade who defected from the PDP in 2021. The suit is currently in court and awaiting judgement.
The legitimacy of political defections in Nigeria is drawn from the Fundamental Human Right which is in section 40(6) of the Nigerian constitution. This section states that “Every person is entitled to assemble freely and associate with other persons, and in particular he may form or belong to any political party, trade union and association in the protection of his interests”
However, there are situations where defection is illegal even though the right to freedom of association still holds true. Section 68 (1) (g) of the Nigerian constitution makes party defection grounds for removal for members of the national assembly. This section states that A member shall vacate his seat “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 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 ”.
However, this section only addresses members of the national assembly and is silent on all other elective positions.
The 2010 Electoral Act also attempts to forestall political defections with some of its provisions but it has not been very successful in reducing the indiscriminate abandonment of one party for another by politicians. Attempts to introduce bills on the floor of the National Assembly to curtail defections have also been unsuccessful.
Mr Ariyo-Dare Atoye, executive director for Adopt a Goal for Development and co-convener for the Centre of Liberty, defined defection as an unthoughtful process and a distraction to democracy. Mr Atoye regarded the judgement of David Umahi and Kelechi Igwe; the governor and deputy governor of Ebonyi State by the federal high court as a noble and good judgement, stating that political parties are recognized as the custodian of votes and INEC issues the certificate of return with the candidate’s name and the party he or she belongs to when elected. He also countered the claims of those against the judgement who are claiming that defection is not contained in the constitution and the constitution cannot protect what is outside the constitution.
Mr Atoye told Dataphyte that defection should be stopped so as to strengthen democracy, “Democracy in Nigeria needs to be strengthened by returning sanity to the system that has been bastardised by politicians”.
As the 2023 general elections approach, there is bound to be even more drama around defections. It is to be seen whether the deterrent set by the courts in the case of David Umahi and Kelechi Igwe will have an effect on potential defectors and bring some much needed decorum to party politics and by extension the country’s democracy.