The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), has deplored prevailing defections by politicians from political parties ahead of 2019 general elections, saying it can affect the integrity of democracy in the country.
Chairman of the congress’ chapter in Bayelsa, Mr John Ndiomu, made the remarks in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Yenagoa, and urged politicians to play politics by the rules, especially by constitutional provisions.
Ndiomu urged them to drop the trend and focus on what would drive development for citizens.
He cautioned against repeating old mistakes of politics and said that defection would not impact in any form on national development like job creation and provision of basic amenities.
The country had in the past few weeks recorded defections by politicians from one party to another.
It started prominently with defection of 13 senators from All Progressives Congress (APC) to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and one to African Democratic Congress (ADC) on July 24.
On the same day, 37 members of the House of Representatives also left the APC, with 32 to the PDP, four to ADC, while one member merely resigned from the party
Governor of Sokoto state, Aminu Tambuwal and his Benue and Kwara counterparts, Samuel Ortom and Abdufattah Ahmed, also defected from APC to PDP.
The governors moved with more than half of members of House of Assembly in their states.
On July 31, President of the Senate, Dr Bukola Saraki, defected from APC to PDP.
Shortly after, Malam Bolaji Abdullahi, resigned as National Publicity Secretary of APC and also defected to PDP.
Former governor of Akwa Ibom, Sen. Godswill Akpabio, resigned as Minority Leader in the Senate on Monday, and on Wednesday, he crossed from the PDP to the APC.
“Well, I will not say that our democracy is under threat or that we are going backward; my concern is that our politicians are yet to learn their lessons.
“The current issue of defection is indicating that they are going to repeat the old mistakes in the forthcoming elections.
“My question here is whether the defectors are defecting for the good interest of Nigerians or for their selfish interest?
“It`s high time we learnt from the past in order not to repeat the old mistakes.
“In the forthcoming elections, we want politicians, who have Nigerians at heart and we, the electorate should be mindful not to vote politicians that have failed the people,” Ndiomu said.
