Going by the constitutional provisions of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), anyone that defects to the party after yesterday would no longer be qualified to vie for any elective office or be given any political appointment.
The party in its constitution stipulates that, to be qualified for any political appointment, the affected person must be a member of the PDP for at least one year while those seeking elective offices must be registered members of the party for two years.
Consequently, anyone who has not joined the PDP before now cannot contest any elective office in 2015. A violation of the rule, political analysts told LEADERSHIP Weekend, is challengeable in court and can lead to the candidate’s disqualification by the court if his or her election is contested.
The analysts said that since the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had released the timetable for the 2015 general elections and fixed the presidential poll for February 14, 2015, anyone who had not joined the PDP had missed the opportunity to feature either in the elections or seek political appointment.
A top member of the PDP told LEADERSHIP Weekend last night that section 50 (9) of the party’s constitution, states that “there shall be a minimum of two years membership span for a member to be eligible to stand for any elective position unless the appropriate executive committee gives a waiver or rules to the contrary. However, for political appointments, such persons must be members of the party for one year”.
Among the prominent politicians who have recently defected to the PDP from the All Progressives Congress (APC) are former Kano State governor Ibrahim Shekarau, his Sokoto State counterpart Attahiru Bafarawa and some members of the National Assembly.
Although the apprehension of losing the chance to seek elective office has gripped APC members who failed to meet the deadline to register during the party’s membership registration programme that ended yesterday, the APC leadership has said that the exercise is a continuous one. The party also said it had no provision in its constitution precluding anyone from seeking elective office based on the time he or she joined the APC.
The APC leadership however said that anyone who did not register in the current exercise will not be eligible to seek party offices at its congress slated for March.
The APC national secretary, Tijjani Musa Tumsah, told our correspondent that such insinuations on the party’s membership hold no water. According to him, registration of membership is a continuous exercise and those who have not done it could still do it later.
“It is true the registration exercise would be over tomorrow (yesterday), but those who have not registered could still do it and still participate in the future elections. This registration is just to have an idea of the membership strength of our party nation-wide. Others would still be allowed to register and contest under the platform of the party,” he told LEADERSHIP Weekend on Thursday.
Prior to the clarification, associates of the speaker, House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, who are dragging him into the presidential race on the platform of the opposition party, had feared that he might not be qualified to seek the office because he did not participate in the registration exercise.
One of those being speculated as its potential presidential candidate is Tambuwal who has never hidden his soft spot for the opposition that helped him to the office at the expense of the PDP in 2011.
Other aspirants that may emerge once the electioneering begins include former head of state Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, former minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, former vice president Atiku Abubakar, chairman of the LEADERSHIP Group Sam Nda-Isaiah, former EFCC chairman Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, governor of Edo State Adams Oshiomhole, his Lagos State counterpart Babatunde Raji Fashola, and governor of Imo State Rochas Okorocha.
Investigations within the party show that APC is polarised into two uneven camps: those who want Gen. Buhari to contest the presidency again and those who prefer the younger Turks to take the centre stage with the former head of state backing them.
But, to the other camp, Buhari, having run for president three times, may be predicted by the ruling PDP, coupled with the fact that his candidacy may receive stiff opposition from the elite who always see him as a threat.
When Tumsah was reminded of the need to be member of a party for at least one year to be eligible to contest, he explained that since APC was a product of merging political parties, members of the parties involved in it had transferred their membership from their former parties to APC.
The parties that merged to form APC were the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), a faction of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), and a faction of the PDP called “new PDP”.
But another problem for the “new PDP” members who defected to the party is the refusal of the INEC to recognise the faction within the ruling PDP and political watchers believe the matter might become an issue to be resolved by the court when the need arises.
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