Something happened on the floor of the Senate on March 13, 2026, which, until today, leaves a sour taste in the mouth, as far as the practice of the nation’s democracy is concerned.
On that day, nine Senators announced their decision to switch their allegiance to the Africa Democratic Congress (ADC). Some of them belonged to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), some to the Labour Party (LP), and the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA). Senate President Godswill Akpabio read the letters written by the individual Senators but dropped a caveat when it got to the turn of Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe of APGA. He told the Abia South Senator to produce evidence of division within APGA or risk his seat being declared vacant. For the record, those who defected on that day include Senator Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, representing Sokoto South, Ogoshi Onawo (Nasarawa South), Austin Akobundu (Abia Central), and Lawal Usman Adamu (Kaduna Central). While Senators Ireti Kingibe (Federal Capital Territory) and Victor Umeh (Anambra Central) defected from the LP to the ADC, Senator Abaribe, a former Minority Leader, announced his defection from APGA to the ADC. The defection gale also caught the former governor of Bayelsa State, Senator Seriake Dickson, who dropped the PDP for the newly formed National Democratic Congress (NDC). The announcement of the defections tilted the structure in the Senate in favour of the ADC, which became the main opposition party in the chamber, as it now has 10 senators, while the PDP has eight. The SDP, the NDC, and the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) have one Senator each, with the ruling APC having 85 Senators, more than the two-thirds majority needed for the control of the chamber.
While Akpabio raised his objection to Abaribe’s move, he told the five term-Abia lawmaker that he cannot join the defection crew because his political party, the APGA, has not experienced a division, in line with the provisions of the 1999 Constitution. Akpabio threatened to act on the side of the constitution if Abaribe fails to produce evidence of the cracks in his party, but Abaribe told the Senate that he had been expelled from the party way back in September 2025. The Abia Senator argued that his decision to defect was premised on expulsion from Abia APGA, while Akpabio and Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, further warned that defection without party crisis violates Section 68(1)(b) and (g) of the 1999 Constitution. Though that was not the first clash between Akpabio and Abaribe on the floor of the Senate, the clash in mid-March had a tinge of mischief in it, as it was the first time a senator’s defection move was being questioned by the Senate President. We have heard the saying that if you join the APC, your sins are forgiven, credited to the former Labour leader, who is now a chieftain of the APC, Senator Adams Oshiomhole Perhaps Abaribe’s sins are being visited on him because he chose to stand in the way of a one-party Senate and perpetually spoke for the people. For instance, Akpabio had once accused Abaribe of being a “social media senator” during the debate on the 2026 Electoral Act. Abaribe had obviously caught the eyes as an opposition lawmaker, who says his mind, no matter whose ox is gored. He led opposition senators to oppose the removal of a clause that would have made real-time transmission of election results compulsory. He equally called for division on the floor of the Senate when a contrary clause was passed. The passed section gave the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) the latitude to manually collate results through Form EC8A, where networks are not available. So, in a sense, Abaribe had been a thorn in the flesh of the leadership of the Senate. He played a similar role during the administration of the late President Muhammadu Buhari.
As much as defection by a lawmaker is forbidden by the 1999 Constitution, it also provides a proviso that makes defection acceptable when there is division in the ranks of the party being jettisoned. In the case of Abaribe, members of the party on whose ticket he was elected chose to play some theatrics by announcing his expulsion. The decision itself begs for reason. A party with a single senator in the 109 -member Senate decided to expel that lone senator because some forces believed he was playing populist politics by speaking out against the ills in the polity. Where else would that happen except in the murky waters of Nigerian politics? Abaribe had chosen to take his time to settle the uprising against him, but he saw himself persistently being lured into the ruling party. Before it became too late, he decided to pitch his tent with the emerging opposition ADC, and then, Akpabio remembered that Section 68(1g) exists in the 1999 Constitution.
Pray, was Section 68(1g) not in existence when 16 senators defected to the ruling party from the PDP, SDP, and the Young Progressives Party (YPP), even when there was no scent of division in those parties? It has been said that betrayal is a politician’s raison de ’ter, maybe mischief and selective justice are joining in. Available records have shown that 16 senators defected to the ruling party early in the life of the Senate before the recent festival of divisions in the parties. All of those senators were welcomed with open arms. If Abaribe had announced his decision to join the APC, I am sure no inquiry would have been necessary. So, what manner of inconsistency are we seeing?
In June 2023, the APC started the current with 59 senators, with the PDP coming a distant second with 36 senators. LP had 8, NNPP and SDP had two each, and APGA had one Senator. But by mid-October 2025, the APC had gained 16 senators, and as of the last count in March 2026, the ruling party had secured 27 senators, all through defections. Thus, the APC now has 85 senators, far more than the required two-thirds majority needed to control the chamber. Examples of early defection that were accepted without question include Senator Ifeanyi Ubah (YPP to APC in 2023), Senator Ezenwa Onyewuchi (LP to APC), Senator Ned Nwoko (PDP to APC), Senator Kawu Sumaila (NNPP to APC), and Senator Benson Konbowei (PDP to APC). There were no questions as to the nature of division in their parties whatsoever. Then, you had additional defection in late 2025. Senator Kelvin Chukwu defected from LP to APC, while a couple of others also defected up to early 2026. They include Senators Ipalibo Banigo, Amos Yohanna, Aminu Iya Abbas, Ikra Aliyu Bilbis, James Barka, and Midala Balami, among others.
As stated earlier, these defections have pushed the number of APC senators to an unprecedented figure never achieved by any party in Nigerian history. But it looks like that much is not enough haul for Akpabio, as he probably would wish all the 108 senators were converted to broom-bearing politicians.
That brings us to the bid by the National Assembly to criminalise dual-party membership by imposing fines of up to N10 million and two-year prison terms. This is, in a way, linked to the Akpabio/Abaribe imbroglio, because the APC is apparently calculating that in case an opposition lawmaker refuses to join the defection craze, he or she could land in the hot soup of dual-party registration. Besides that, the trap could also capture any aggrieved member of the ruling party who might get dissatisfied with the primary process and seek to better his political fortunes elsewhere. The 2026 Electoral Act has already mandated the submission of digital registers by the political parties before the primaries, so any politician caught migrating to another party late in the day could be guilty of double registration and made to face the law.
Though the House of Representatives has passed the bill into law, it is awaiting the buy-in of the Senate. I would, however, advise the Senate not to waste taxpayers’ money dwelling on such a bill. This is because the constitution already forbids anyone from contesting on the platform of two parties, which means that no one can belong to two parties at the same time. But the constitution also guarantees freedom of association, so I can be long to party Z while associating with people in party W. The right to associate is incumbent on the person and cannot be decreed out of existence.
I will offer to tell our senators that even when the law is passed, human beings will always find ways around it. Since the constitution guarantees the right to associate and determine one’s associates at every point, one can also switch parties at any point in time ahead of the party primaries. As far as the switch is within the timeframe allowed by INEC, in accordance with the Electoral Act and the 1999 Constitution. No one can hamper anyone who chooses to bolt from either a sinking or a floating boat. I so, submit, distinguished Senators.
(Published by the Sunday Tribune, March 29, 2026
