PARTY DEFECTION: DEMOCRACY AT STAKE
The political system of Nigeria has grown to what may seem unexplained.
Party defection practices in Nigeria have become an attribute of Nigerian politics. Defection is an act of swapping political parties. It is an act of changing party allegiance or moving from one party to another. This term is termed in different schools of thought as; “Decamping”, “cross carpeting, “party hopping”, “party switching”, “party cross over’’, and “canoe jumping” (Malhotra 2005). Party defection is traced as far back as 1951, when several members of National Council of Nigeria and Cameroon (NCNC) defect to the Action Group (AG), to the point that it’s now a norm.
various political parties in Nigeria
One of the issues that have contributed to party defection in Nigeria is lack of internal democracy and God fatherlism within political parties. In Nigeria, recognition of candidates for primary election depends on political power and economic strength. Regardless of integrity and capability/capacity of the candidate involved (jinadu, 2014). These acts have led to political crisis and sour to democratic processes, and hence political disease.
Major catalogues of party defection.
list of individuals who have defected from one party to another in Nigeria
list of individuals who have defected from one party to another in Nigeria
2019 general election is close and another list like the one above is building up. A similar scenario when there was an incessant defection of prominent members of people Democratic Party (PDP) between 2013-2015 to the opposition party the all progressive congress (APC) is happening now but this time reverse is the case.
Latest defections
2018 party defection.
we will not forget the latest which is the senate president Sen. Bukola Saraki dumping APC.
LAWFUL IMPLICATION OF DEFECTION
There is a law aimed at check mating the rate of defection in section 68 and 109 of the 1999 Nigerian constitution (as amended). However, inherent deficiencies in the law have frustrated the achievement of the purpose of the law. Section 68(1g) states thus;
A member of the state or the House of Representatives 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 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 (Constitution of Federal of Nigeria, 1999, p.34)
Impeachment of defected candidate is seen as just by the law.
