How To Recall Your Erring Legislative Representative

David Okwara

3 years ago

This should be common knowledge but knowing that young people even nowadays are far detached from political matters, they will be forgiven for not paying mind to these things. We must understand that elections are not all there is to the democratic process and that there are different dimensions to how citizens can get their voices to be heard in the scheme of things.

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We have more than explored the mass action part (protests) thanks to #EndSARS. But in this bit, I want to enumerate just what the process is for punishing erring representatives of the people at any level. A recall is one of the ways in which citizens hold their representatives accountable in a democracy like ours. Like many aspects of democracy, it is no walk in the park but it is very much a thing. The process goes thus:

A petition has to be put forward to the INEC office in the said constituency. The petition must detail the offences that have led to the proposed recall and must be signed by half of the registered voters in any such constituency and locale. The petition would be addressed to the INEC Chairman.
Next, in acting on the petition, INEC will order the conduct of a referendum in that constituency that will involve all registered voters.

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A decision is reached in the referendum, either an option to recall or not to recall win by a simple majority. The referendum is how INEC ascertains that the signatures on the petition are actual voters registered in that constituency.
Once a representative is recalled, a bye-election is scheduled in the near future so that a new rep will be elected to replace the old one and represent the constituency.

Pay no mind to how simple the steps seem, it is complicated especially when it comes to the matter of registered voters. The process can be hijacked by the subject of its process (the embattled rep). The matter of voter registration has been a vexing issue all by itself as it is a process that lends itself to being manipulated as many get to be excluded from the register due to some strange requirements in the process. As with most things in our system, the success of the process depends on how savvy, vigilant and conscious citizens are in and throughout the process. Featured Image Source: New Mail NG

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