Political Party Defections by Elected Officers in Nigeria: Nuisance Or Catalyst for Democratic Reforms?
International Journal of Research in Humanities and Social Studies Volume 7, Issue 2, 2020, PP 11-23 ISSN 2394-6288 (Print) & ISSN 2394-6296 (Online) Political Party Defections by Elected Officers in Nigeria: Nuisance or Catalyst for Democratic Reforms? Enobong Mbang Akpambang, Ph.D1*, Omolade Adeyemi Oniyinde, Ph.D2 1Senior Lecturer and Acting Head, Department of Public Law, Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria 2Senior Lecturer and Acting Head, Department of Jurisprudence and International Law, Faculty of Law, Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria *Corresponding Author: Enobong Mbang Akpambang, Ph.D, Senior Lecturer and Acting Head, Department of Public Law, Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria. ABSTRACT The article interrogated whether defections or party switching by elected officers, both in Nigeria‟s executive and legislative arms of government, constitutes a nuisance capable of undermining the country‟s nascent democracy or can be treated as a catalyst to ingrain democratic reforms in the country. This question has become a subject of increasing concerns in view of the influx of defections by elected officers from one political party to the other in recent times, especially before and after election periods, without the slightest compunction. It was discovered in the article that though the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) has made significant provisions regarding prohibition of defection, except in deserving cases, yet elected officers go about „party-prostituting‟ with reckless abandon. The article concludes that political party defections by elected officers, if left unchecked, may amount to a nuisance capable of undermining the democratic processes in Nigeria in the long run.
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