The moral compass behind court sacking of defecting governors

An Editorial Earlier this month, an Abuja High Court judge, Mr Justice Inyang Ekwo declared as illegal, the defection of Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State and his deputy, Dr kelechi Igwe from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC). The court made the order on a judgment on a suit filed by the PDP seeking the removal of Umahi and Igwe from office. At a press conference in his state capital, Abakaliki, Umahi berated the judge, adding that the judgment was bought . he said he would not respect the court order. The governor said, “We are alarmed how misery and desperation could navigate some politicians to offer themselves as willing tools to enemies of Ndigbo, just to destabilize Ebonyi State and set the state on fire. This court judgment will not see the light of day.” Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide is on this same page with Umahi. In a statement issued to the media, Okechukwu Isiguzoro, secretary- general of the organization, dismissed the ruling as a miscarriage of justice and “a black market judgment.” He believes that the ruling was aimed at creating havoc and chaos in Ebonyi State and an attempt to take over the reins of power in the state through the back door. Before then, Justice Ekwo had ruled that the crux of the suit was the defection of the governor and his deputy from the PDP to the APC. The judge said the declarations of the third and fourth defendants did not address the issue of defection rightly and frontally but rather general denial and affidavit evidence. Justice Ekwo said the depositions of the defendants in their counter—affidavits were evasive and insufficient to completely challenge the plaintiff’s originating process. He said that the immunity clause in section 308 of the Constitution is not absolute. Section 308 is a veritable Constitutional shield but not for political reasons. The court said umahi and Igwe did not controvert the deposition that the total votes scored in an election belonged to a political party. The judge said Umahi and his deputy cannot transfer PDP votes to APC because there was enough evidence that the APC contested the Ebonyi State governorship election held in March 2019 with its own candidates. Consequently, the court declared that under the democratic system operated in Nigeria, PDP won the majority of votes during the election and was entitled to enjoy same till end of tenure of office for which the election was made. The judge therefore restrained Umahi and Igwe from parading themselves as governor and deputy governor of Ebonyi State. In another judgment, the judge sacked 15 members of the Ebonyi state assembly who defected from the PDP to the APC on the same grounds the governor and his deputy were removed. The Guardian agrees with the ruling. The judgment is a true reflection of the Constitution and the Electoral Act. It is perfidious for the defendants to abandon the PDP that sponsored them in 2015 and 2019 elections. We who believe honor should underpin the conduct of political office holders are horrified and embarrassed by the spate of defections by leaders we look upon for examples of decency. The Ekwo verdict will deepen democracy and curtail the excesses of politicians, especially lawmakers who jump from one party to another. Citing precedents from similar statutes from Common Law countries such as in the USA and the Commonwealth of Nations, the American jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes, the law is what a court says, not what is written in the books. Also, let the precedent that says, “Let the pronouncement of a judge stand where a lacunae in the law could have been left out of mischief.” Defection used to be called carpet crossing; it is now called defection. It was used in 1954 by the Action Group to deny Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe the chance to become Premier of Western Region. It has now become the defining characteristic of Nigerian politics. It is now a way of life of the Nigerian politicians who see it as a clever way of rewarding themselves without efforts. Hopefully, other judges will find courage in this judgment by upholding it up to the Supreme Court whose chief justice was removed via a non-judicial officer code of conduct tribunal chairman. Let the judiciary help rescue governance from the irresponsible actions of unscrupulous politicians who think moving from branch to branch like monkeys is pragmatic politics. Nigerian politics is in a mess because our big men refuse to play by the rules. Nigeria is in shambles because we are all complicit in the raping of the Constitution and the continued hacking at the pillars of democracy by men entrusted with both the moral and legal duty to protect them. Law should not be divorced from morality. The behaviors of these political harlots are deleterious to the growth of democracy and party politics in this country. Defection is a worm in the apple of our politics, it should be destroyed. Since Nigeria returned to civil rule in 1999, defection became so rampart that it nearly ruined President Buhari’s re-election in 2019. No single political party registered by the departing military regime has remained the same. Politicians have crossed carpet back and forth to the extent that the majority of Nigerian politicians have changed parties more than twice. The reason for defection has been dubbed stomach infrastructure which translates to using politics to make money, not to serve the people. Defection is a malaise with the capacity to spread its poison to all things political and decent. It fosters impunity and corruption. Let the judiciary extinguish it now before it make another military takeover inevitable. Just like the weakening of the tribes through the creation of unviable states, it is yet another entity left to promote the domination of one ethnic group by another in the federation. It is because of defection that Nigeria cannot build political parties around a well defined ideology intended to promote economic and social development. In Nigeria today, we are just using politics for making a living. Even the blind knows that defection is dangerous to our unity, it promotes nepotism. By making the Ekwo judgment to stand, it will represent a milestone in our statute books and the means of rescuing Nigerian governance from scoundrels.