BY FRANCIS ONYEUKWU
The gale of defections by Nigerian politicians from one political party to another has dominated political discourse in the country lately.
While some schools of thought consider it normal, others say such defections are for power pursuit instead of upholding party ideology.
According to proponents of defection, it is a reflection of freedom of association and the right to choose.
However, critics say it weakens the opposition and has the potential to lead to a one-party state.
While the debate subsists, one pertinent question remains: How does this affect the ordinary people in terms of democracy dividends?
In some climes where democracy is practiced, the conditions attached for defection are very stringent, while in others, there are liberal conditions making it easy for politicians to move from one party to the other.
But of importance is the question–in whose interest is defection by a political office holder; himself or his constituents or the entire institution?
The defectors, especially from the opposition parties such as the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP) and others, have joined the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) mostly at the National Assembly.
Although, there have been other political alignment and re-alignment, analysts fear that the high wave of defection might snowball into a one-party state.
Mr Lucky Dibiagwu, a Londonbased Nigerian, said that for the system to function effectively, democratic rule must produce strong institutions.
Dibiagwu, the President Umuokwu Izombe Development Association (UIDA), a Diaspora group that promotes peace, security and development in oil-producing Izombe community in Imo, said the masses benefited more when institutions were stronger than individuals.
“In UK, where we have very strong democracy in place, the institutions are stronger than individuals and nobody tends to live above the law.
“If we can have such arrangement in Nigeria, things will get better, the high cases of corruption, poverty, unemployment and lot more will certainly come down.’’
He said that if Nigeria must progress to such level of development, there must be stability in its political ecosystem; and rampant cases of politicians jumping from one party to the other should stop.
Dibiagwu said political ideology and people-centric policies and programmes must be the focus of democracy rather than the current system that favoured a few privileged political officer holders.
“For Nigeria’s democracy to achieve this, there must be stringent rules checking defection, strengthening of rules of law, transparency, fight against corruption and above all, meritocracy must be enthroned at all levels of government,’’ he said.
Prof. Abubakar Siddique-Mohamadu, Director, Centre for Democratic Development Research and Training, Zaria, Kaduna State, said defection all depended on the process that led to it.
“Certainly, when you talk of democracy, you are talking of freedom of actions, freedom of speech and association as determined by the law of the land.
“People have the right to choose the party they want to belong; but what we are seeing in Nigeria is very negative in that government in power is actually infiltrating the opposition parties to divide them.
“And all this manoeuvring is targeted at winning the next elections and that is what is wrong in the defections we have in Nigeria which does not augur well with the society.
“In democracy, we have opposition and credible opposition makes government in power to sit up and do the right thing.
“There is a moral issue like in the case of Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, the immediate past Governor of Delta, who has held several positions in the PDP, defecting to the APC.
According to him, democracy and its institutions are not built in such way. Nonetheless, he said that he did not believe that the gale of defection could make Nigeria slide to one party state.
He added that what the ruling party could only achieve was to weaken some opposition party ahead of next general election.
“Nigerian political ecosystem is very dynamic because Nigeria is very large country and for such political calculation to work will be a bit difficult; may be, that is what they have in mind, but I do not think that will succeed.
“Some of the leading opposition parties are already re-strategizing mobilising to form a coalition to confront the ruling party in the next general elections and this might result in having a stronger opposition party,’’ he said.
On his part, Mr Sampson Itodo, Executive Director, Yaiga Africa, a Civil Society Organisation (CSO), said it was dangerous and counter-productive for Nigeria to have one party state because that would turn the nation into authoritarian state.
“Nigeria should not aspire to be a one-party state even though the trend we are seeing is gravitating towards that.
“These whole defections we are seeing lately points to the fact that we do not have vibrant political parties.
“We have spent 26 years since the return of democracy; yet, our political parties are becoming weaker by the day; and they are central to our democratic process because they aggregate citizens’ interest.
“They also aggregate social interests and then field individuals and compete for powers during electoral contests.
“Regrettably, what we have today are ‘special purpose vehicles’, that are only interested in capturing power and that is really very sad.”
He regretted that politicians moved from one party to the other without recourse to the danger such conduct had on the system.
“If things must work well, politics of principles whereby people can say, I am loyal to this political party and I believe in its values and ideologies should be practice.
“What do we see, political actors feel that their survival is anchored on their ability to connect to the ruling party at any time and that is not how democracy thrives.
“Democracy thrives on competition; when you have opposition politics, it strengthens accountability, transparency and rule of law, but that is absent within our current space.
“I do not think it is the right thing to be stoking war and conflicts amongst the opposition parties; this is not a decent democratic strategy and we must not accept this as a standard.’’
Itodo said Nigeria needed statesmen and women who would put the overall interest of the nation first above selfish interest.
He said there was need for laws to make defection difficult without impeding on the fundamental rights of freedom of association and freedom of expression to the people. He recommended massive participation of people in political process.
“The Supreme Court says that votes in election belongs to the party who fields candidates, meaning that if someone who won election in one party defects to another party, he should vacate the position, but that does not happen,” he said.
For Shehu Sani, former Kaduna Central Senator, Nigerians must do their bit for a vibrant democracy to be achieved.
He said though the godfathers played a major role in the activities of major political parties, the voters could swell their support for popular candidates to sweep the polls.
Sani, a human rights activist-turned politician, also lampooned the opposition political parties and the civil society organisations for not doing enough to strengthen democratic rules.
“Vibrant oppositions especially in the legislature help to put the ruling party on its toes; again, the civil society organisations should be active to make the right things to happen,” he said.
While the debate on the legality and morality of defections rages, stakeholders say dearth of party ideology, internal party wrangling and others factors that create room for defections should be addressed.
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