Distinguished Senator Binos Dauda Yaroe, representing the good people of Adamawa South Senatorial District, needed a moment of absolute constitutional clarity at Wednesday’s Senate plenary session.
He explained that some rules are bent or selectively quoted to suit temporary political narratives, citing Senator Kawu’s case.
The lawmaker raised a point of order earlier in the session regarding party defection,
Senator Yaroe explained that it was not merely about defending a fellow lawmaker; it was about protecting the integrity of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), a document we all swore an oath to uphold.
The lawmaker anchored his argument strictly on Section 68, subsection 1(g) of the Constitution. To break this down to its most basic form: “This section dictates that if a lawmaker leaves the political party that sponsored his/her election to join a new party before their tenure expires, he/she must vacate their seat. The only exceptions are if their original party splits into factions or merges with another”
However, the fundamental prerequisite—the bedrock of this rule—is that the lawmaker must have been elected under the banner of the party he is now abandoning.
He drew the Senate leadership’s attention to the glaring omission in Senator Kawu’s earlier submission, as he had conveniently ignored this critical prerequisite. ‘I brought focus to the specific case of our colleague who recently aligned with the African Democratic Congress (ADC). The indisputable truth is straightforward: he (Senator Kawu) was never elected to this chamber under the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Therefore, attempting to declare his seat vacant for leaving a party that did not sponsor his senatorial election is a gross misapplication of the law,” Senator Yaroe explained.
Senator Yaroe held that the Senate must not weaponize constitutional clauses whilst deliberately ignoring their explicit conditions.
His submission, he said, is simple, concise, and rooted in irrefutable logic. Leaving the APC for the ADC, in this specific context, does not contravene the constitutional provision because the foundational criteria for vacating a seat were never met. “I laid out the facts clearly,” ensuring there was no room for ambiguity or misinterpretation. If we are to make decisions that affect the democratic representation of Nigerians, those decisions must be legally sound and factually accurate, not based on convenient, politically motivated misinterpretations, he maintained.
The presiding officer’s response was, frankly, a reflection of the political realities we navigate daily. Rather than engaging deeply with the constitutional facts Senator Yaroe presented, the matter was subjected to a swift, almost perfunctory voice vote. Acknowledging that the issue had been ruled upon previously, the Senate President called for the ‘Ayes’ and ‘Nays’. The ‘ Nays’ predictably carried the day.
With a swift strike of the gavel and a chuckle from the floor, his point of order was “noted but rejected.
