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By Chukwudi Abiandu

The Federal High Court ruling sacking Hon. Abubakar Gummi from the House of Representatives is not merely a judicial footnote, it is a moral thunderclap across Nigeria’s political landscape. Justice Obiora Egwuatu’s judgment did more than unseat a lawmaker; it confronted, in unambiguous language, the debased culture of mandate-theft masquerading as political strategy. It called out what Nigerians have always known but courts often tip-toe around: political defection without relinquishing office is daylight robbery. It is a betrayal, a fraud, and in the judge’s own piercing words, political prostitution that must not be rewarded.

In a country where party platforms are treated like rented umbrellas, used when convenient and discarded once the sun shines elsewhere, this decision signals a long-overdue reckoning. Gummi’s sack is a shot fired directly at the heart of Nigeria’s political elite, who have perfected the ignoble art of moving from party to party like nomadic traders, carrying with them the sacred mandate of the people as personal luggage.

For once, a judge has not only read the Constitution, but respected its spirit. Section 68(1)(g) of the 1999 Constitution is not decorative poetry; it is the legal firewall against opportunism. Yet, for years, politicians have trampled it with the arrogance of a ruling elite convinced Nigeria’s constitutional order exists only to decorate courtrooms and law books.

Justice Egwuatu refused to play that game. He reminded office holders and the nation that votes belong to political parties, not individual politicians. You may be popular, you may be charismatic, but without a party platform, you are just another ambitious Nigerian on Twitter. The people vote institutions, not personal ambition wrapped in borrowed party colours.

And that brings us to the uncomfortable question the ruling has now thrown at Nigeria’s political class: What about the legion of defectors, especially those who fled the PDP en masse to the APC like pilgrims seeking salvation in the temple of power?

From Delta, to Akwa Ibom, to Enugu; governors, lawmakers, chairmen, councillors — public officials have wholesale migrated with mandates that were earned on the PDP’s back and auctioned to the APC’s convenience. They did not defect; they defected with the goods. They stole a political vehicle and then spray-painted it another colour.

If Gummi’s defection is illegal, unconstitutional and morally bankrupt and the court says it is, then what moral and legal ground do the others stand on? How long will the judiciary pretend that judicial truth applies only to a few? How large must the hypocrisy grow before the law, like the public’s patience, snaps?

The PDP Governors’ Forum already has a suit seeking the vacation of seats occupied by defectors. Suddenly, the ruling in Gummi’s case stands like a legal lighthouse guiding the way. If the court follows its own logic and in a just republic, it must, then the floodgates of accountability are about to open.

Will the courts apply the same principle? Or will political expediency again twist justice into a pretzel? Will Nigeria remain a democracy guided by rules, or continue dancing to the drumbeats of whichever party holds Abuja at the moment?

This ruling offers a rare window to sanitize a polluted political culture. It can restore dignity to party platforms and respect to electoral mandates. It can end the era where political power is treated like private property and voters are treated like disposable footnotes. If enforced consistently, it could be the most consequential judicial check on political rascality since the return of civilian rule.

The choice before Nigeria’s democracy is stark: embrace this judgment as a charter for ethical politics, or watch the country sink deeper into one-party dominance powered by defection-driven cannibalism. Justice Egwuatu has struck the match. Whether the judiciary builds a bonfire of clean political order or quietly blows out the flame under pressure remains to be seen.

But one thing is now clear: the game has shifted. The era of politicians jumping fence with stolen mandate baskets may finally be counting its last days. And if the courts stay the course, Nigeria may just reclaim the meaning of a mandate — not as a personal trophy, but as a public trust that no political philanderer has the right to trade.

The judiciary has spoken. The ball is now in the court of conscience, courage, and constitutional fidelity. The question is: Will the system follow through, or retreat into silence?

For once, Nigeria must not blink.

* Chukwudi Abiandu is President/Editor-in-Chief Banner Communication Network, publishers of banneronlinenews.com