18th February, 2014
In the last couple of weeks, defections and counter-defections in the National Assembly have hogged the news headlines non-stop. The most prominent being that of a group of 11 senators elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, who have indicated interest to cross-carpet to the opposition All Progressives Congress, APC, through a letter addressed to the President of the Senate, David Mark. What followed that letter has become the subject of a heated debate along party lines, to the extent that even the legal interpretations appear to be mired in controversy.
Clear as it should be in a democratic set-up that people have the right to freedom of association, the dimension that the defection saga has taken is raising more puzzles concerning the manner our democracy is being practiced.
Cardinal among the issues is the very essence of these defections. Beyond the mere talk about freedom of association, what do the legislators have to show as a basis for leaving the parties under which they were elected? Are they citing ideological heritage which now clash with their former party’s?
Everybody of cognitive niche in Nigeria knows that politics in this country is bereft of any identifiable philosophy. This explains why a man could be in Party A in the morning and by nightfall, he has moved over to Party B if he feels his personal interest is being threatened. And bad enough, some of these people confuse their selfish interests with the general interest of the electorate.
In the long run, what these mass defections achieve is to thin out even the narrowest of ideological lines that exist in the polity. This, however, is not a rationale for the presiding officer(s) in the National Assembly to stop the senators who want to quit a party for another from moving. We understand that some aspects of the matter, as the 11 senators claim, are before the court for determination.
But the electorate are concerned about how their representatives are treated. They want to know if the sacred principles of separation of powers and checks and balances are observed as the leadership of the upper legislature seeks a solution to what appears to be a brewing crisis on the political horizon. Why should the courts hold the legislature, a separate arm of government, to ransome over matters that do not concern it? What is the essence of separation of powers in a democracy if the court could lord it over the legislature in this instance?
Importantly, Nigerians are worried about the brickbats, accusations and counter-accusations mostly bordering on money-for-defection in the National Assembly as the media has been reporting in recent times. The recourse to taking bribe in order to defect from one party to another portrays us as a people who thrive on corruption even when very basic individual decisions have to be taken.
If this democracy will be nurtured to fruition, then we must begin to pay attention to building strong institutions. Political identities beyond mere slogan chanting and party affiliations are essential for the health of any democratic culture. We must move away from the mere congregation of strange bedfellows who easily part ways when their personal interests are threatened.
Our laws must be efficacious and less ambiguous as they currently appear to be. If the constitution was distinctly clear without confusing clauses, the confusion that has trailed this defection saga and other issues would have been avoided or at least reduced to the minimum.