Obi, Kwankwaso, Others To Sign NDC Anti-Defection Pact
The Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) has introduced a mandatory anti-defection policy requiring all candidates seeking elective office on its platform to sign affidavits and indemnity forms committing to vacate their seats if they defect from the party after winning elections.
The policy was unveiled at the party's national secretariat in Abuja during an indemnity-signing ceremony attended by party officials, candidates and aspirants ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Speaking at the event, the National Chairman of NDC, Senator Moses Cleopas, said the measure was designed to protect the sanctity of electoral mandates, strengthen party discipline and prevent the growing trend of post-election defections by elected officials.
Cleopas explained that the policy applies to all categories of candidates, including governorship, National Assembly and presidential aspirants, stressing that the party would no longer tolerate situations where politicians win elections on its platform only to defect after securing office.
He said the decision was endorsed at a recent National Executive Committee meeting and would become a binding condition for anyone seeking the party's ticket.
"In our last NEC meeting, a motion was moved, supported and established that when we take over government, people elected on the platform of our party must respect the party's instrument.
"This is not just a party for one man to rise and achieve his ambitions and do anything he likes with the party. This is a political party that we desire to groom and hand over to the next generation."
According to him, political parties across the country have suffered significant setbacks due to defections by elected officials who abandoned the platforms that sponsored them after elections.
"One thing we have come to observe is that in the present polity, when people contest elections and win under political parties, they become gods. And in between the time that they ought to have, they will just use one minor excuse to dump the platform and perhaps go into the ruling party," he said.
The NDC chairman cited developments within the Labour Party following the 2023 elections as an example of why stronger internal safeguards had become necessary.
"A very typical example that we have all seen in the last three years is the Labour Party, where so many individuals won elections under the platform of the party.
"Now, we are in another election cycle. Go and check their history. How many of the people who won elections under the Labour Party and were inaugurated are still members of the party?
"If all of them had remained, you and I can imagine how the Labour Party could have been today, even if they had not won the presidency. When you see these kinds of things happening, it is expedient that you start to think of how to guide your political parties."
Cleopas emphasised that membership of the NDC remains voluntary but said anyone seeking elective office under the party must accept its rules and conditions.
"If you want to contest the election under the platform of the NDC, you are free to come. Nobody is forcing you. But when you come, you should know that there are certain rules by which we, as a political party, guide our members.
"One of them is that if you contest an election under our platform and win, under no circumstances, as against what is provided for in the 1999 Constitution, that you will just wake up to say that I don't like the NDC again, or I don't like the face of my national or state chairman. Therefore, now that I am already elected, I am leaving the party."
Reaffirming the party's position, the chairman declared that electoral mandates belong to both the party and the electorate that voted through its platform.
"The mandate belongs to the party and the people who voted through that platform. If you leave the party after winning, you cannot continue to hold the seat.
"We are putting this in black and white. Once you take the ticket, you are bound by it. If you leave, you leave the seat."
He further stated that all candidates would be required to sign affidavit and indemnity documents before receiving party tickets.
"If you win, the mandate is owned by the party. If you otherwise choose to leave, go the same way you came and leave what you picked from here.
"That is why we brought our National Legal Adviser and his team to prepare documents that include affidavit and indemnity forms for every candidate in all categories to fill and take the oath."
Providing the legal basis for the policy, Cleopas cited provisions of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights as well as Nigeria's Constitution, arguing that while freedom of association is guaranteed, elected offices are products of party-based nomination systems and cannot be separated from the platforms that sponsored successful candidates.
The party's National Legal Adviser, Reuben Egwuaba, defended the measure, describing political parties as voluntary associations governed by rules freely accepted by members.
"A political party is just like a club, church or mosque where there are rules and regulations. That is why the 1999 Constitution, under Section 222, states that a candidate of a political party is just a mere agent of the party.
"And once a candidate is declared the winner and inaugurated, until the expiration of the tenure upon which that candidate won the election and was inaugurated, the mandate belongs to the political party, not any other.
"So, if you are privileged to win the election after clinching the party ticket, that does not mean the mandate belongs to you."
Egwuaba said the NDC Constitution contains enforceable provisions that bind elected officeholders to the party throughout their tenure.
"These provisions make it clear that once you are elected under the NDC, your mandate is tied to the party. If you resign from the party, you cannot retain the office."
He explained that the affidavit requirement would serve as a legally binding undertaking and a prerequisite for candidature.
"Without this affidavit, your name will not even be uploaded to the INEC portal. It is a strict requirement."
According to him, the policy is intended to close what the party describes as legal loopholes that permit post-election defections without consequences and is consistent with its internal disciplinary framework.
Although some governorship and National Assembly candidates signed the affidavits during the ceremony, several prominent figures, including the party's presidential candidate, Peter Obi, and his running mate, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, had yet to sign the documents as of the time the process was ongoing.
Tags: #NDC #Politics #Defection #2027Elections
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