By Jude Opara
The Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) on Tuesday extracted the commitment of its candidates ahead of the 2027 general elections. To this effect, the candidates signed for absolute loyalty to the party, that they would never defect to any other party if elected.
The ceremony which took place at the NDC National Secretariat, in Abuja was chaired by the party’s National Chairman, Dr. Cleopas Zuwoghe, with several governorship and national assembly candidates, as well as members of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) in attendance.
Addressing the party stakeholders, the National Chairman, regretted that many aspirants regard political parties as vehicles for winning elections only to defect to other parties at the slightest opportunity. He insisted that the NDC will henceforth evoke relevant sections of the constitution to ensure that whoever dumps the party after winning an election will automatically lose his position which he argued was from the party.
Zuwoghe said, “One thing all of us have come to observe in the present polity of this country, is when people contest elections under political parties, when they are privileged to win, they become gods and in between the time that they ought to serve, they will just look for one minor excuse and dump the platform, and perhaps go into a ruling party, but in the beginning, they didn’t contest elections from the ruling party”.
According to the National Chairman, the NDC was not just established because the National leader wanted to establish a political party, but because of the hunger to positively change some of the anomalies that have been happening around the political atmosphere and in other political parties in the county.
“In our last NEC meeting, a motion was moved, supported and established, that even when we, inshallah, win government, we shall form government for the party. People elected on the platform of this party, must respect the party’s instruments. This is not just a party for one man to ride and achieve his ambition and do anything he likes with the party.
“This is a party that we do not hope will last only four years or eight years or 12 years. This is a political party that we desire to groom, and hand over to the next generation.
“We must emphasize party supremacy. You want to contest elections under the platform of the NDC? Yes, you are free to come. But when you have come, you should also be prepared, you should know that there are certain rules by which we as a political party, we guide ourselves as members”.
Zuwoghe added, “If you contest elections under our platform, and you win, under no circumstance, as against what is provided for in the 1999 constitution, you just wake up to say that I don’t like NDC again. I don’t like national chairman’s face, I don’t like my state chairman’s face.
“I don’t like the face of the national organizing secretary. And therefore, now that I am already elected, one year, two years, I am leaving the party. Let him go to hell with his party.
“When you do so, relinquish the mandate upon which you won the election. Drop it all. You can go anywhere, but drop our mandate because it is a party mandate.
“We all came to contest elections under the platform of the NDC. So you are winning on the platform of the NDC, so the ticket is owned by the party. If otherwise, you choose to leave, go the same way you came now, and leave what you picked from here” he stressed.
Similarly, in reaterating the position of the party, the National Legal Adviser, Barr. Reuben Egwuaba, said since political parties sponsor candidates to elections, those candidates cannot simply dump the party and join other political parties with the NDC mandate.
He said; “The grand rule of the country, which is in the 1999 constitution, under section 222, it says that a candidate of a political party is just a mere agent of a political party and that the vote is scored by each candidate of the political party before the person is declared as winner and inaugurated, and that until the expiration of the term, upon which that candidate won the election and was inaugurated, that vote belongs to the political party. It doesn’t belong to any leader.
“The constitution under section 68 says that you have the right to go, but that the mandate of the people, that vote of the people, under which you are standing to collect salary, please drop it for them. You must drop the seat, forfeit that seat.
“The Supreme Court said it is a contractual arrangement, that contract between both of us, whatever I join in with you, is that our vote that I will give to you. You must forfeit that seat, because you can’t eat your cake at that place.
“So in order to make sure that nobody is taken unaware, so that everybody will be aware of the policy of this party, because this party is supreme, whether you like it or be anybody, in our conscience, we have been given the mandate of this ticket, of this party, the political party is supreme”.
The Legal Adviser said that the party will stretch it further and ensure that even the president and governors lose their seat if they defects from the party under which he was elected.
“You must abide by whatever is the rules and regulations of the party, because it’s like a club. So if on your own you have voluntarily registered to be a member of this party, and you are privileged for us to give you our ticket, you must obey the party rules and regulations. So if you get the ticket and after the election you emerge as the winner, and you decide to go to another political party, or you decide to say, no, I have resigned from partisan politics that I don’t want to be a member of the NDC, this affidavit is what we will rely upon”.
He further quoted some relevant sections of the NDC Constitution to back up the ceremony.
“In our own constitution, under article 1506, subsection one, two, and three of the NDC constitution 2026 as amended, that same provision covers you irrespective of any position, whether president, governor, or deputy governor. If you decide to defect, while your tenure is still subsisting, under the platform of NDC, you must forfeit your seat. So there is no room for any of the elected person to say, because I am governor, I am deputy governor, I am the president, so because of that I can jettison NDC, to go to another political party, or decide to say, okay, I am not a member of any political party again”, he concluded.
Governorship candidates from: Kebbi, Kogi, Sokoto and several national assembly candidates signed the pact in the presence of the leadership of the party and other stakeholders.
