Wednesday’s emergence of the All Progressives Congress as the political party with majority of the members in the House of Representatives has elicited mixed reactions from stakeholders.
The News Agency of Nigeria recalls that in the membership data released by the House, the APC has 179 members, while the Peoples Democratic Party now has 162 members and other parties with 19 members.
The data was released by Hon. Victor Ogene (Anambra-APC), the Deputy Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Media and Public Affairs.
Ogene said the new standing of the political parties in the House followed recent defections by the lawmakers.
A political analyst, Patrick Tamara, told NAN in Abuja that the defection of lawmakers from one political party to another was could jeopardise the country’s democracy.
According to Tamara, many of the defections were done for personal interests and not in the interest of constituents.
He said: “If people who swore oath of office to defend our democracy cannot show good example, then where is this country heading to?
“We all know that there are pending cases of defection in the courts.
“So why not show good character and why will they keep jeopardising our democracy.”
Similarly, Malam Abdulwahab Sadiq, a civil servant, said the implication of the gale of defections was that resolutions of the House may tilt towards party lines.
According to Sadiq, most of the pending bills that had passed through first and second readings will now be determined by the APC and this may not augur well for the country.
Sadiq pointed out that some of the lawmakers defected to other political parties largely on account of failed return bids in primary elections conducted across the country in 2014.
However, a member of the House, Hon. Opeyemi Bamidele (Ekiti-LP), said defection was a norm in a democracy.
Bamidele said: “Defection is not strange to the practice of democracy.
“It happens all over the world.
“I am only concerned about the rate at which it is happening in Nigeria, both at the federal and state levels.
“But again, I think it has to do with the level of development of our democracy.
“Today, all of us are eager to cite United States as a model of democratic practice.
“But the truth of it is that this is also a democracy that is over three centuries old and here we are talking about democracy that has remained nascent for a long time.”
NAN reports that APC’s emergence as the political party with most members in the House of Representatives is the first by an opposition since the news democratic rule began in the country in 1999.
The Peoples Democratic Party had remained the dominant party in the House.