The NDC has confirmed that presidential candidate Peter Obi and his running mate Rabiu Kwankwaso are exempt from the party’s new anti-defection oath, with officials saying the policy is really aimed at lawmakers who defect after winning office.
Peter Obi and Rabiu Kwankwaso won’t be signing the Nigeria Democratic Congress’s new loyalty pledge — and the party says that’s by design. NDC National Secretary Ikenna Enekweizu confirmed on Wednesday that the party’s presidential and vice-presidential candidates have been excused from the controversial anti-defection oath rolled out earlier this week.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today, as reported by Daily Post Nigeria, Enekweizu defended the legality of the oath itself, arguing that political parties are voluntary associations whose members must follow internal rules. He insisted the requirement is fully backed by the NDC’s constitution, even as the party’s leadership chose to use its administrative discretion to spare its top two candidates from actually signing it.
According to Enekweizu, the policy was never really about the executive branch in the first place. The real target, he explained, is “the national and state assembly members elected on the platform of our party” — lawmakers who routinely win seats under one party’s banner only to jump ship soon after.
He framed the move as part of a broader push to build a political institution that outlasts individual election cycles, rather than one politicians treat as a temporary launchpad before defecting elsewhere. The oath, unveiled earlier this week at the NDC’s Abuja secretariat, requires candidates to sign indemnity and affidavit forms committing them to vacate their seats if they defect after winning office — though notably, neither Obi nor Kwankwaso attended that signing ceremony.
NEWS NOW:
