By Muazu Elazeh

Arguably, the recent controversy surrounding Abia Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe’s defection to the African Democratic Congress (ADC) has further highlighted the alarmingly low standards in Nigeria’s federal legislature.

The second arm of government, tasked with creating laws that improve citizens’ well-being, is acting in ways that suggest biased application of the law. The latest victim of legislative cherry-picking is Senator Abaribe. He left his All-Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) for the African Democratic Congress (ADC), and suddenly the Red Chamber realised it had a law that forbade lawmakers from cross-carpeting.

It is true that the 1999 Constitution, as amended, explicitly states in Section 68(1)(g) that a legislator who defects from the party that sponsored their election must vacate their seat, except in cases of a proven division within the party or a formal merger with another party.

Virtually all lawmakers who have defected to another political party cite crises within their parties—crises they often provoke, nurture, and sustain to justify their defection. However, when Abaribe notified the Senate of his decision to leave APGA for ADC because, according to him, APGA had sacked him, some Senators raised objections, claiming there was no division in APGA.

Suddenly, the Senate seemed to forget that Abaribe has been suspended indefinitely by the Abia chapter of APGA. In an instant, the Senate appeared to suffer from selective amnesia.

The question the APC-dominated Senate has yet to answer is: what should Abaribe do now that his party, APGA, has imposed an indefinite suspension on him at a time when the nation is approaching yet another election cycle, an electoral process he is sure to participate in? Should Abaribe not seek an alternative platform? If he had joined the APC, would the Senate have made the same observation?

While not excusing the way our elected leaders switch political parties, I firmly believe that the fuss over Abaribe’s defection to the ADC is unnecessary. It is one of the most blatant acts of historical rewriting in Nigeria’s political scene. I dare say that the Akpabio-led, APC-dominated Senate is crying wolf, citing the law that forbids defection while totally disregarding historical precedents, simply because Abaribe chose not to join the APC. If the former Abia deputy governor had joined the APC, this entire reference to section 68(1)(g) would not have arisen.

Perhaps the answer to the fuss over Abaribe’s defection is for him to follow the herd and join the APC, since every politician in Nigeria is now jumping on the bandwagon.

Was it not under this same Senate that the late Ifeanyi Ubah, who faced no crisis within the Young Progressives Party (YPP) on whose platform he was elected to the National Assembly, defected to the APC? When Ubah left YPP for APC, was the section referred to by the Senate not operational?

Where were the Senate and those opposing Abaribe’s defection when Senator Pam Dachungyang, who was elected on the platform of ADP to represent Plateau North Senatorial District, defected to the APC despite there being no crisis within the ADP to justify his action?

Nigerians will always remember that in 2018, Senate President Godswill Akpabio, then Senate Minority Leader, left the PDP for the ruling APC, even when the PDP was well-organised and peaceful. At that time, the PDP was not on the verge of collapse as it is now. Akpabio understood, like most Nigerians, that his reason for leaving PDP—which, at the time, had the strength to serve as a serious opposition to the APC—was solely personal. Was there no Section 68(1)(g) at that time?

But this is what happens when a nation has a Senate that is not only compromised but also sets the bar too low. Sad. This is what we are currently witnessing. To be repetitive, I must say that the inconvenient truth is that the bar has been set so low; it is at an all-time low!

When a Senate meant to enact laws for the nation’s good governance watches helplessly as ministries, departments, and agencies are starved of capital releases from the budget it approved after what it claimed were exhaustive deliberations, you know how low it has set the bar.

When a Senate fails or chooses to remain silent, without advocating for concrete, practical solutions to end insecurity and economic hardships faced by the citizens who elected them in the first place, you don’t need anyone to remind you how low the bar has become.

When you have a Senate that rubber-stamps everything the executive proposes, you don’t need anyone to tell you that the standard is very low.

When your country’s national assembly passes an Electoral Act that removes certificate forgery as an offence at the election petition tribunal, thereby preventing anyone from challenging their opponent’s electoral victory on grounds of certificate forgery and claiming such issues should be addressed as pre-election matters, without recognising that forgery, if discovered at any stage, should be contested, it is clear that the standard has been set unreasonably low.

A Senate that maintains such a low standard should not cause further frustration among citizens by fussing like a hen searching for a nest over the defection of one of its members. The fact that APGA suspended Senator Abaribe indefinitely gives ample reason for his departure. He has been stripped of his political platform in a country that does not recognise independent candidates.

Even if we assume, without conceding, that he has no reason to leave the party, why is the Senate being selective? The law does not function well when it is applied selectively. When it is biased, it cannot be justice.

It is true that two wrongs don’t make a right. However, it is also true that what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. If there was no fuss when the late Ifeanyi Ubah defected to the APC, even when the YPP was stable; if there was no fuss when Akpabio defected to the APC in 2018, even before the current chaotic state of affairs in the PDP fully unfolded; and if there was no fuss when Senator Pam Dachungyang dumped ADP for APC, then why should there be now that Abaribe, suspended indefinitely by his APGA, chooses to join ADC?

Instead of fussing over Abaribe’s defection, the Senate should take this opportunity to redeem itself by carefully reviewing the section that bans lawmakers’ defection and ensuring it removes all barriers to proper enforcement.

Why can’t the National Assembly amend the constitution to make defection, under any guise, illegal? If you are elected on a particular party’s platform and, for any reason, wish to leave the party, you should resign from office. It makes no sense that a law requiring a candidate to seek office through a political party would be so lenient as to let the same candidate abandon the party and still keep their seat. That provision permitting defection during a political party crisis has been exploited by politicians, most of whom deliberately incite a crisis to justify their defection.

—Elazeh is the GMD of LEADERSHIP Newspapers. He can be reached via: richmuaz@gmail.com