Defection In NASS: Enough Of The Charade

The desperation for political power has caused defections from political parties, especially in the National Assembly, which demean the seriousness of the chamber’s affairs. The 2027 election season has seen many defections in the polity, which has been more notorious in that law-making arm of the government.

Recent media reports estimated that over 300 political defections have occurred in the last 12 months. It said the aggrieved members who left the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) between February 2024 and February 2025 all cited the crises at both the state and national levels as the reason for their defection.

The report detailed the defections according to geopolitical zones. It revealed that at least 66 and 34 party leaders dumped the former national ruling party in the North West and North East.

In the North Central, 47 members also left their parties, while 48 members did the same in the South West. In the South South, 68 party leaders switched sides, while 37 persons followed the pattern in the South East.

The defection traffic has been one-way so far, the ruling national party. The defector politicians justified their switch of loyalty.  They blame the crisis rocking their former platforms for their exit. Nobody wants to drown in a sinking ship, even though most willfully contributed to holes within the boat.

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However, we are not unmindful of those who were frustrated outside the party, as we have seen throughout our eventful democratic experience.

Defections in Nigeria have largely been driven by desperation for political power and easy, unrestricted access to the commonwealth.

Still, politicians who don’t hold elected offices can make a case for their defection, even though it reflects on their loyalty quotient—a key currency in politics, which is rarely rewarded in Nigeria, another rare reason for defection in the true sense.

However, for a politician elected to office on a mandate and platform to midway switch allegiance to another party reflects a character deficit.

So far in this National Assembly, no fewer than 10 such defections have occurred to justify their platforms’ crisis.

This assembly, just like the ones before it, has continued a tradition that has corroded the fibre of the nation’s democratic sojourn.

The rebukes, cajoles, admonitions and cautions by several eminent Nigerians over the years about the negative impact of this behavior, have not yielded much despite the evident constitutional infringement involved

In particular, section 68(1) of the Constitution provides that a member of the Senate or the House of Representatives should vacate the seat of the House, which he is a member if he leaves the political party on which he contested for election to join another political party before the expiration of the period for which he was elected.

An exception to this rule, however, applies in cases where there has been a division of the political party of which he was previously a member, or there has been a merger of two or more political parties or factions by one of which he was previously sponsored.

It has become more worrisome than sad that lawmakers have refused to comply with the law’s provisions. Worse, leaders of the National Assembly have indulged in this reprehensible practice over the years mainly because their parties stand to gain from it.

The situation is so bad that the political class have made it seem the right thing to do. They attempt to rationalise a selfish quest to remain in office by instigating and even indulging in a dumping crisis.

We are not against freedom of association. How can we? It’s a fundamental principle in any democratic government. It is one of the very elements that makes democracy what it is.

We are only against its abuse by politicians—abuse in the sense of what we see today, where a politician, for obvious personal reasons, gets up and leaves a platform on which he won a mandate and pitches sides with the platform that he intends to win an election, nothing more or less.

This behaviour has to stop. Sadly, the two major political parties in the country today are mostly the culprits, and as such, the affected often feel a burden of guilt.

Nevertheless, we urge politicians to stop this behaviour. Belonging to a political party shouldn’t just be about a platform to acquire mere power. In our opinion, service to society must count for something.

Politics and the accompanying public service were designed to make positively consequential policies, laws, and social engineering in the overall interest of the people who entrust their elective representatives with authority.

The people feel betrayed when they are taken for granted which ultimately weakens their resolve to participate and have faith in the democratic process.

From this standpoint, we urge the political class to save democracy by stopping this mindless charade.