Nigerian legislators appear to have thrown a Constitutional prohibition of cross-carpeting into the dustbin. Recent defections have been heavy on the leadership side. Top on the list is the Senate Majority Leader, Senator Abdullahi Yahaya who moved from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and consequently forfeited his Majority Leader position, which is yet to be filled. Another resignation is that of the Senate Minority Leader, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe who defected from the main opposition party, PDP to the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and consequently resigned his position as Minority Leader. He was replaced by Senator Philip Aduda (Federal Capital Territory) of the PDP. Aduda’s previous position as Minority Whip of the Senate was filled by Senator Chukwuka Utazi (Enugu North), also of the PDP.
Some of the legislators in the two leading parties who failed in their party primaries may have moved to lesser known parties to enable them to be on the ballot for the 2023 general elections. There is however, the interesting trend of several of the ruling APC Senators either already moving to other parties or threatening to do so. This could cost the party its majority in the National Assembly, especially the Senate. Already, twenty-two aggrieved APC Senators who failed to win in the primaries have met with President Muhammadu Buhari and are threatening to leave the party. The President is reported to have told them to exercise patience as the party promises to review their situation. It is not clear how the review intends to be achieved.
Section 68(1)(g) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria specifically prohibits cross-carpeting, although it makes provision for the circumstances under which a person may retain his/her seat in a legislative House were he/she to move from his/her party to another. This section of the Constitution provides that a member of the National Assembly shall vacate his/her seat in the House of which he/she 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.”
The provision gives conditions for which a legislator can defect from one party to another, the condition being that there is a division within his or her party or that there has been a merger of political parties, involving the legislator’s party. In many cases, legislators defect without the existence of any of these conditions, thereby violating this Constitutional provision. Although for recent defections that have occurred, some legislators have cited internal party crises within their parties at the State level, it is difficult to ascertain these claims in the absence of clear evidence.
National Assembly members who have recently defected from their parties to other parties include:
Senate
- Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe (Abia South): PDP to APGA
- Senator Stella Oduah (Anambra North): APC to PDP
- Senator Haliru Jika (Bauchi Central): APC to New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP)
- Senator Lawal Yahaya Gumau (Bauchi South): APC to NNPP
- Senator Francis Alimikhena (Edo North): APC to PDP
- Senator Francis Onyewuchi (Imo East) PDP to Labour Party
- Senator Ibrahim Shekarau (Kano Central ): APC to NNPP
- Senator Ahmed Babba Kaita (Katsina North): APC to PDP
- Senator Abdullahi Yahaya (Kebbi North): APC to PDP
- Senator Adamu Aliero (Kebbi Central): APC to PDP
- Senator Godiya Akwashiki (Nasarawa North): APC to PDP
House of Representatives
- Hon. Shina Peller (Oyo): APC to NNPP
- Hon. Rimamnde Shawulu (Taraba): PDP to NNPP
- Hon. John Dyegh (Benue): APC to PDP
- Hon. Chris Azubogu (Anambra): PDP to Labour Party
- Hon. Ugonna Ozuruigbo (Imo): APC to PDP
- Hon. Shamsudeen Dambazau (Kano): APC to NNPP