At a recent APC event in Abuja, Senate President Godswill Akpabio reportedly proposed a motion for President Bola Tinubu to be the sole presidential candidate for the 2027 election. He claimed that all opposition structures, particularly that of the PDP, had been dismantled, implying there was no viable challenger left. Of course he would say a thing like that, giving that defection has become the order of the day. Especially with notable political leaders defecting to the APC. Case in point, the defection of Delta State Governor Sheriff Oborevwori, his deputy, commissioners, and several local government chairmen defecting from the PDP to the APC. This move has no doubt severely weakened the PDP’s long-standing dominance in Delta State.
While defection is a political norm, it has been a tool for political relevance or for evading prosecution by Nigeria’s political Players. They hop from one party to another without an iota of concern for ideology or loyalty, typically on the guise of “personal conviction” or “irreconcilable differences.” Consequently eroding public trust, weakening institutions, and killing ideological politics.
The 1999 Constitution allows freedom of association, and rightly so. But this freedom has been twisted into a loophole where elected officials jump ship not because of ideological disagreement but to secure political survival. In the National Assembly and across state houses, we’ve seen lawmakers switch parties overnight. Sometimes after benefiting from the same party platform that brought them to power. It is an insult to the mandate of the people. When people vote for a candidate from a particular party, they are voting for the said party’s projects and ideologies along with it. Mid-term defection without resignation is against that mandate and trivializes the election process into nothing, rendering voting a filler rather than a decision.
Nigerian political parties are today interchangeable with one another, not because they’re working from a shared progressive agenda, but because they’re merely vehicles to achieve power. If politicians switch between APC and other parties and vice versa like musical chairs, then it’s an indication there’s no ideological commitment, but opportunism.
Political switching encourages impunity. There are no or very little consequences for party switching. In fact, defectors are often lured with plum positions, as parties will do everything to get numbers instead of defending ideals. This culture emboldens the idea that power, and not service, is the end game of politics.
With the number of defections reported almost on a daily basis from other parties to the APC, and the rumours of backdoor discussions about major players planning to defect, it is becoming clearer that by the time 2027 elections approach, most political parties would have become a shadow of themselves, and president Tinubu with his APC may indeed be the only active candidate and party with a structure.
What is the way forward?
Nigeria needs stronger legal and institutional mechanisms to stem political prostitution. The courts need to interpret and implement Section 68 of the Constitution more meaningfully. For example, if a legislator crosses the floor without any genuine crisis in his or her party, his/her seat must be lost. And the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) needs to be empowered to make elections count, to make a mandate not to be sold like a commodity.
Finally, the voter must awaken. We must make leaders accountable, not just at the polls, but through civic engagement, media watch, and political education. The currency of democracy is trust, and the more we permit defection to occur with impunity, the more we erode our democracy.
Nigeria cannot go ahead if our leaders are more dedicated to their ambition than to the people. It is time to put a stop to the political defection culture and bring back dignity, accountability, and ideology to our politics. 2027 elections cannot have a single candidate.
