POLITICAL DEFECTION AND CONSTITUTIONAL VACUUM-IN1 NIGERIA: A CRITIQUE OF THE UNEQUAL CONSEQUENCES FOR LEGISLATORS AND EXECUTIVE OFFICE HOLDERS

POLITICAL DEFECTION AND CONSTITUTIONAL VACUUM IN NIGERIA: A CRITIQUE OF THE UNEQUAL CONSEQUENCES FOR LEGISLATORS AND EXECUTIVE OFFICE HOLDERS ABSTRACT Political defection has become one of the most visible symptoms of institutional weakness in Nigeria's Fourth Republic. Because the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) makes party sponsorship a precondition of contesting any elective office, and because the Supreme Court has repeatedly held that the electoral mandate belongs to the political party rather than to the individual candidate, the question of what happens when an office holder abandons the party that sponsored him ought, in principle, to be governed...

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