By Samuel Ogidan
Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, yesterday said elected office holders who defected to other political parties would lose their seats.
Jega stated this at the All Nigeria Political Parties and Political Stakeholders Summit held in Abuja.
If the call by Jega is implemented, the 37 defected lawmakers and the five Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors that defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) would lose their seats.
Speaking on the topic “Inter-party Collaboration, National Stability and Democratic Consolidation in Nigeria,” Jega said: “There remains the issue of rampant change of political parties by politicians. Some observers have described this as political nomadism.
“While we must respect the right of citizens to choose at will what parties to belong to, as part of their freedom of association, the negative effects of hemorrhage of party members and the rancor it generates cannot be underestimated.”
He added: “Because on one hand the legal framework is not too clear; if you are elected on the platform of a political party and you cross carpet and change your political party, then, obviously, you have to relinquish the seat and election needs to be conducted to fill that seat. This is an important issue we should address.”
The chairman also called for inter-party collaboration as a veritable instrument for achieving a stable and consolidated democracy.
“We need to improve the functioning of IPAC to ensure full commitment of all parties to the Council and Code of Conduct,” he said. “We also need to improve the funding profile of IPAC to enable it continue to play its role in growing our democracy and national stability.”
Jega added that there was need to continue to improve the organisation of political parties, with a view to modernising them and making them core institutions of democratic development.
“The thorny issue of deregistration of political party remains. INEC has submitted a proposal of the amendment of the Electoral Act to expunge the provision empowering the commission to deregister political parties, but instead empower the commission to determine the criteria for parties to get on the ballot.”
He explained that such move would afford the parties space to continue to play their cardinal roles in political development without challenges posed by election management.
Reacting on the call for defectors to lose their seats, the APC said politicians should be given room to move to any political party of their choice.
Represented by the interim Woman Leader, Sharon Ikeazor, at the summit, the APC noted that in the face of merger and birth of the opposition, defectors to the opposition party should be allowed to move around.
“An opportunity came once in a life for a merger of three political parties to birth APC, so it is only fair to give our politicians a chance to move around. After that I assure you that the political promiscuity will end.”
National Chairman of the Progressives People Alliance (PPA) and Secretary-General of Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), Peter Ameh, also supported the call by INEC to ensure that defectors lose their seats.
“As a PPA member, it is a right thing, because our party has suffered in this process. The law exists but the law does not have teeth to bite.
“There was an amendment by the National Assembly that said ‘if there is crisis in the party,’ but how do you justify if there is crisis in a party? A man can just wake up tomorrow and say I am the national chairman of a party and the public will believe him, hence we should remove that law.
“I want to say that my party, PPA, stands by this law, that if anybody has won an election under a platform of a party and cross-carpets, you don’t have to wait for the clerk to pass a letter to INEC, the person should vacate the seat with immediate effect.”
He recalled that the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) suffered the same fate when from nine states under its kitty, it went down after politicians who had earlier won election under the party’s platform left in droves.
“Let us forget about laws even on moral grounds. A sane person will know that after people have toiled to elect you, you now turn around and say you have decamped.
“Look at former governor Peter Obi; if they have dumped APGA, were would APGA have been today?”