Former lawmaker and presidential aide, Senator Ita Enang, has declared that all lawmakers who defected from their political parties without a legally recognised division have forfeited their seats in both the National and State Assemblies.
Enang, who spoke in Abuja on Wednesday while addressing Senate correspondents at his Ibom Chambers, said the Constitution leaves no ambiguity on the fate of defectors.
“The Constitution is clear: if there is no court-declared division and you leave your party, you lose your seat — whether or not it has been formally declared vacant,” Enang asserted.
“The Supreme Court has gone further to affirm that such defectors must even refund all salaries and allowances collected after their defection.”
The former Senator blamed the rising wave of political defections on the collapse of opposition parties, not on the dominance of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
“Nigeria is not becoming a one-party state through any machination of the APC or the Tinubu administration,” he said.
“It is happening because other political parties have failed to survive as real institutions. Most appear in the news for a few weeks and fade away — some collapse under internal crises, others are crippled by court orders or bought over.”
Enang maintained that the vacuum left by weak opposition structures has forced politicians to “gravitate towards the only party that remains functional.”
Turning to economic matters, Senator Enang faulted the Federal Government’s use of 2025 revenue to fund the 2024 budget, describing it as fiscally and constitutionally improper.
With 56 days left in the lifespan of the 2024 budget’s capital component, he warned that the decision to extend its implementation to December 31, 2025, effectively merges two fiscal years in a way that distorts accountability.
“Each year’s revenue should fund that year’s expenditure. Projects not completed in 2024 should have been rolled over and captured in the 2025 budgetary provisions,” he said.
Enang said the Federal Government’s fiscal strain stems from inadequate revenue and over-reliance on borrowing.
“The reality is that the government does not have enough money to meet its obligations, hence the continuous borrowing to fund deficits,” he explained.
“But the year of budget implementation and the year of revenue generation must align — not what we are witnessing now, where 2024 projects are being funded with 2025 revenue.”
He, however, clarified that borrowing plans contained in the Appropriation Acts remain lawful, noting that “every budget, including those of 2024 and 2025, contains a deficit and provision for borrowing to fund it.”
