Battle for tickets, defections, others to dominate House in 2018

Members of the House of Representatives will be approaching the New Year, 2018, with a lot of vigour and hope. However, they have many challenges which they must attend to, including the battle for return tickets from their various political parties. Our correspondent looks at the issues.

The year 2017 has been one full of activities for members of the House of Representatives who partake in various political activities in the country.

As they get set to usher in 2018 there are a number of issues that are on their tables, which they must clear. Based on observations by our correspondent, the most important thing that the lawmakers will grapple with is the fight for return tickets.

Being the year preceding elections’ year, 2018 will see many of the lawmakers doing everything in their power to clinch their various political parties’ tickets.

Although a Member of the House from Niger State, Abubakar Chika Adamu, of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), has already written his party at the state level that he would not be re-contesting, our correspondent gathered that most of the lawmakers will be seeking to re-contest.

A few of them may not re-contest due to the fact that they have not been able to recoup their financial investments politically, because unlike what obtained in the past where largesse would be shared among lawmakers for just no cause, the case is now different.

Suffice it to say that the office is now unattractive to some of the lawmakers. A number of times, some lawmakers, especially new comers, complained that had they known the situation in the House was like this, they would not have wasted their time to seek election in the first place.

However, many of them that will be interested in coming back will meet a brick wall in getting the tickets for a number of reasons.

First, constituents of many of the lawmakers accuse them of non-performance, which will greatly affect their chances of getting return tickets.

Considering the way Nigerian politics is, where money plays an important role, most of the lawmakers do not meet their financial obligations to their constituents, which will serve as an albatross to their second term aspiration.

Even if they do get the tickets, they may find it difficult to win the elections. This is simply because most of APC members in the House from the northern part rode on the back of the then APC presidential candidate and now President, Muhammadu Buhari, to win elections.

However, political analysts say the case will be different in 2019 because even the president will be battling with serious opposition. Thus, the lawmakers will be engaged in serious politicking.

Defections from one political party to another will be a prominent feature among members of the House in the coming year.

In the last one year, the House witnessed several defections, especially from the opposition PDP to the ruling APC.

Daily Trust