ABUJA, Nigeria — The Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) has introduced a strict anti-defection policy requiring all candidates seeking elective offices on its platform to sign indemnity and affidavit forms committing to vacate their seats if they defect to another party after winning elections.
The policy, unveiled on Tuesday at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja, is expected to affect prominent members, including the party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, his running mate, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, and other recent entrants into the party ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Speaking during the signing ceremony attended by some candidates and aspirants, NDC National Chairman, Moses Cleopas, said the move was aimed at protecting the party’s electoral mandates and strengthening internal discipline. According to him, the decision was informed by repeated cases of politicians winning elections on party platforms only to defect to rival parties after securing office.
“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,” Cleopas 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.”
Cleopas cited the experience of the Labour Party after the 2023 elections as justification for the new policy. “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 stated. “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.”
The NDC chairman stressed that while membership of the party was voluntary, anyone seeking to contest elections on its platform must agree to abide by its rules. He stated that candidates would be required to sign affidavit and indemnity forms before receiving the party’s ticket. “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.
The party’s National Legal Adviser, Reuben Egwuaba, defended the policy, describing political parties as voluntary associations governed by internal rules accepted by members. “A political party is just like a club, church or mosque where there are rules and regulations. 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,” he said.
Despite the significance of the policy, several prominent party figures, including Obi and Kwankwaso, were absent from the event. The development is widely seen as an attempt by the NDC to avoid the wave of defections that has weakened several opposition parties in recent years. Obi’s political career has seen him move from APGA to PDP, Labour Party, ADC, and eventually the NDC, while Kwankwaso has also belonged to multiple parties, including PDP, APC, NNPP, ADC, and the NDC.
