2027: NDC To Compel Peter Obi, Kwankwaso, Others To Sign Anti-defection Pact

The Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) has announced a new anti-defection framework that will require all candidates seeking elective offices on its platform to sign legally binding documents committing to surrender their mandates if they leave the party after securing victory at the polls.

The policy, unveiled on Tuesday at the party’s national headquarters in Abuja, is expected to apply to all aspirants and candidates ahead of the 2027 general elections, including the party’s presidential flag bearer, Peter Obi, his running mate, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, and other political figures who recently joined the party.

Speaking at the ceremony where some aspirants began endorsing the documents, NDC National Chairman, Moses Cleopas, said the initiative was designed to safeguard the party’s electoral victories and prevent elected officials from abandoning the platform that facilitated their emergence.

Cleopas explained that the measure stemmed from concerns over the growing trend of politicians defecting to rival parties after winning elections, often weakening the structures that supported their campaigns.

He disclosed that the party’s National Executive Committee had endorsed the policy as part of broader efforts to strengthen loyalty and institutional stability within the NDC.

“In our last NEC meeting, a motion was moved, supported, and established that when we take over the government, people elected on the platform of our party must respect the party’s instrument,” he said.

“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.”

The NDC chairman lamented what he described as a recurring pattern in Nigeria’s political landscape, where elected officeholders abandon the parties that sponsored them once they secure power.

“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,” he stated.

“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.”

Cleopas pointed to developments within the Labour Party following the 2023 elections as an example of why stronger safeguards were 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,” he said.

“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.”

According to him, membership of the NDC remains voluntary, but anyone seeking to contest under the party’s banner must accept and abide by its regulations.

“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,” he said.

He added that the party would not tolerate situations where elected officials abandon the NDC on personal grounds after benefiting from its platform.

“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.”

Cleopas further revealed that aspirants would be required to complete affidavit and indemnity forms before receiving the party’s nomination 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,” he said.

“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.”

Also speaking, the party’s National Legal Adviser, Reuben Egwuaba, defended the legality of the policy, arguing that political parties are voluntary organisations whose members are bound by agreed rules and regulations.

“A political party is just like a club, church or mosque where there are rules and regulations,” Egwuaba said.

“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.”

He maintained that electoral victories secured on a party platform should not be treated as personal property by elected officials.

“So, if you are privileged to win the election after clinching the party ticket, that does not mean the mandate belongs to you,” he added.