NDC rolls out “mandate bond”: Candidates must sign affidavit to surrender seat if they defect

● New party says “vote belongs to party, not person” — invokes Amaechi precedent, targets post-election carpet-crossing

Barely three months after registration, the Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC, has moved to draw a hard line against political defections.

On Tuesday at its Abuja secretariat, NDC National Chairman Senator Cleopas Moses Zuwoghe unveiled a binding indemnity framework that compels every party candidate to sign a court-sworn affidavit: win on our platform, leave the party, and you must surrender the mandate.

He called it “historic” and “special.”

—“Go back the same way you came”—

Zuwoghe said the policy was born from a study of enduring parties worldwide and from Nigeria’s own cycle of post-election defections that, in his words, “weakened political institutions.”

“This party was not established because we just wanted another political party in the normal sense. It is a complete evaluation of what has been happening in our political atmosphere,” he said.

The chairman was blunt on the new rule:
“If you contest elections under our platform and you win, under no circumstance should you wake up and say, ‘I don’t like NDC again.’ When you do so, relinquish the mandate upon which you won the election. Drop it all. You can go anywhere, but drop our mandate because it is a party mandate.”

“Nobody is stopping you from going. But go back the same way you came. That is the spirit behind what we are doing.”

He cited Labour Party’s post-2023 experience as a warning: “Go and check the arithmetic. How many of the people that won elections under the Labour Party are still members of the Labour Party?”

—Legal backbone: “It’s a contract”–

NDC National Legal Adviser Barr. Reuben Egwuaba provided the constitutional argument. His thesis: the vote belongs to the party, the candidate is only an agent.

“A candidate of a political party is just a mere agent of a political party, and the vote belongs to the political party,” Egwuaba argued.

He anchored the policy on constitutional provisions and Supreme Court jurisprudence, especially the 2007 Rotimi Amaechi vs INEC & Others case where the court held that votes are cast for parties, not individuals.

“The Supreme Court said it is a contractual arrangement. You can’t have your cake and eat it. If you decide to leave the party, you must forfeit the seat,” he said.

To enforce it, NDC will make candidates swear binding affidavits before a court during nomination.

“Without this affidavit being attached to your credentials and nomination form, your name cannot be uploaded because we are very serious about it,” Egwuaba disclosed.

The rule, he added, applies to all elective offices — president, governor, deputy governor, legislature — under Article 1506 of the NDC constitution.

–Party supremacy over personal ambition–

Zuwoghe stressed NDC wants to be an institution, not a “vehicle for one man’s ambition.”

“This is a political party that we desire to groom and, if Christ tarries, hand over to the next generation,” he said.

NDC, he added, is “showcasing to Nigerians that we are different… We have a vision and a mission — a better vision, a better mission for all Nigerians. We stand with innovations that shall better our politics.”

–Why this matters now–

1. Legal test coming: Section 68(1)(g) of the 1999 Constitution already provides for seat vacancy when a legislator defects, but enforcement has been spotty. NDC’s affidavit creates a pre-emptive, contractual hook that could force faster compliance.

2. Judicial precedent: The Amaechi case established that parties “own” the mandate. NDC is betting courts will uphold a signed indemnity as evidence of that contract.

3. Political signal: With defections rampant across APC, PDP, LP, the move positions NDC as an “anti-carpet-crossing” party — a branding play for voters tired of post-election party-switching.

–The bottom line–

NDC is essentially turning party loyalty into a legal obligation. Candidates get the ticket, but they sign away the right to walk away with the seat.

Whether INEC accepts the affidavits and whether courts will compel resignations remains to be tested. But for a 3-month-old party, NDC just set the tone: defect, and you leave the mandate behind.