Date Published: 08/07/09
LEGALITY OF GOVERNOR OHAKIM'S DEFECTION
By Chukwudi Nwokoye Esq.
Much has been said about the recent Governor Ikedi Ohakim’s defection from the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) to the Peoples Democratic Party. It could be recalled that Governor Ohakim formerly of PDP could only muster 3 votes in the PDP primaries in 2007. Not able to actualize his personal political ego in the shark-infested party, he jumped ship to the PPA which offered him platform on a platter of diamond. After winning the April 2007 election under PPA platform, Governor Ohakim decided to cross-carpet to the same party that spurned him in their 2007 congress.
Though his is a classical case of political harlotry, the goal of this write up is not to question Gov Ohakim’s morals or lack of it. The main aim of this article is to explore the legality of defection from a party through which a candidate receives a mandate, to another party.
According to Section 221 of the 1999 Constitution:
“No association, other than a political party shall canvass for votes for any candidate at any election or contribute to the funds of any political party or to the election expenses of any candidate at an election”
The above provision makes it explicit for political parties to be sole sponsors of candidates for elective posts. Right now, our constitution does not support independent candidacy. So the draftmen was looking at the party establishment when they made that provision in the constitution.
As I said earlier, the above cited sections of the constitution makes political parties the sole sponsors of candidates for elective posts, the constitution was only express on what happens to state and federal legislators that defect from their parent parties on whose sponsorship they won their election. Sections 68(1)(g) and (2) and 109(1)(g) provides that:
“A member of the Senate or House of Representative shall vacate his seat in the House of which he is a member if-(g) being a person whose election to the House was sponsored by a political party, he becomes a member of another party before the expiration of the period for which that house was elected: Provided that his membership of the latter political party is not as a result of a division in the political party of which he was previously a member or of a merger of two or more political parties or factions by one of which he was previously sponsored”
By the above, the constitution is clear that a candidate in the legislative branch whether in the State or National Assembly automatically lose his seat should he cross-carpet to another political party.
With regard to the office of Governor, Section 177(c) of the Constitution states that:
“A person shall be qualified for election to the office of the Governor of a state if he is a member of a political party and sponsored by that political party”.
Though Section 177(c) clarifies that only under a political party should a candidate aspire to be elected a governor of a state, the constitution was silent on the issue of whether the members of the executive branch such as Presidents, Vice Presidents, Governors and Deputy Governors could also lose their mandate if they decamp to another party after their election. One wonders why the constitution could make express provision for the legislative branch and not offer same benefits to their counterparts in the executive branch. The court has not given a clear-cut ruling on this issue partly because it has never been litigated conclusively prior to this dispensation.
However, in the words Oguntade JSC (Justice of the Supreme Court) in the case of Omehia Vs. Amaechi:
“Without a political party, a candidate cannot contest (an election). If as provided in Section 221…it is only a party that canvasses for votes, it follows that it is a party that wins an election. A good or bad candidate may enhance or diminish the prospect of his party winning, but at the end of the day, it is the party that wins or loses an election”
Though the Omehia Vs. Amaechi quoted above, came to the Supreme Court on an entirely different issue of political party’s internal wrangling, the apex court did not mince words when it stated that only a political party can sponsor a candidate for an election. If the apex court had ruled otherwise, it follows that it is okay for a candidate that benefitted from that sponsorship to desert the party and also elope with the mandate. As the court already asserted, only a party wins an election and not necessarily a candidate in an election wins.
To some commentators, the constitution was not express on the issue of the executives. However, the intent of the drafters of the constitution was to forestall a situation where political fair-weather birds like Ohakims of this world would suck on a political party only to desert the same party with their hard-earned mandate when the going gets tough. It is submitted that the observation of the learned Supreme Court Justice is sound and tallies with the draftman’s intent in Section 221 of the constitution.
The same issue is now before the Federal High Court. The All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) is challenging at the Federal High Court, Gasua, the last year’s defection of Governor Aliyu Shinkafi of Zamfara State from ANPP to PDP with the ANPP’s mandate. The case has be heard by the Federal High Court and judgment billed to be delivered on the 12 th day of October, 2009.
It is expected that the judgment of the court would be closely watched by both political and judicial watchers. The case is poised to go all the way to the Supreme Court. That being the case, if or when Governor Shinkafi finally lose the case against his former party, the ripple effect would be huge. Governor Ohakim and politicians of his ilk's days in their respective Governor's Mansion are numbered. It could be recalled that only last month, Governor Isa Yaguda of Bauchi State also decamped from ANPP to PDP. So did Governor Saminu Turaki of Jigawa State who also defected from ANPP to PDP. The legal wind initiated by ANPP in Zamfara could develop into a whirlwind that would put the Ohakims of this world to their place in oblivion.
*Chukwudi Nwokoye, an attorney, writes from Maryland, USA. nwokoyeac@hotmail.com
