In the Holy bible, in John Chapter One, verse Forty-Six, it is written: "And Nathaniel said unto him, can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Phillip saith unto him, come and see".
Like Nathaniel, some Nigerians have been asking, "can there any good thing come out of INEC again, considering its legendary capacity for making faux pax".
To this, Vanguard says, "come and see".
And so, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, National Chairman of Nigeria's Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, hit it right, yesterday, after a meeting of the Commission at its Maitama, Zambezi Crescent headquarters in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja.
It said the petition submitted for the recall of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan of Kogi Central Senatorial District of Kogi State, failed.
Flipping...
The Commission had declared that the petition submitted to it on Tuesday, March 25, 2025, for the recall of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan did not meet the constitutional requirement. It said if the petitioners align with the requirements as outlined in Clause 1(f) of the Regulations and Guidelines, INEC will proceed with the next steps as stipulated by the relevant laws and regulations. It said there were no addresses, emails or contact phone numbers.
Flopping...
On Wednesday, March 26, 2025, INEC wrote that it was ready to continue the process and that the Kogi Central petitioners had corrected the anomaly.
"Further to the statement issued yesterday, Tuesday 25th March 2025, the Commission hereby confirms that the contact address of representatives of the petitioners, their telephone numbers and e-mail addresses have now been provided in a letter addressed to the Chairman of the Commission dated today Wednesday 26th March 2025.
"As provided in Clause 2(a) of the Commission's Regulations and Guidelines for Recall 2024, a letter has been written to notify the Senator sought to be recalled about the receipt of the petition and delivered to her official address."The same letter has been copied to the presiding officer of the Senate and published on the Commission's website," its National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, Sam Olumekun, disclosed.
And getting it right
However, yesterday, INEC announced that the petition was a fool's errand and it could not proceed owing to the inability of the petitioners to meet the constitutional requirement of 50% plus signatories. (See Box for breakdown)
But, rather than be met with applause for a job well done, a section of the public took it with a pinch of salt, citing INEC's earlier statements.
What The Law Says
A policy analysis of Section 69 of the 1999 Constitution as amended and Section 110 of the same, by the Policy And Legal Advocacy Centre, PLAC, broke down the process and procedures for recall.
Indeed, it was an amendment to the recall clause that signatures must be verified that makes the process cumbersome and difficult to achieve.
Titled Recall of Legislators under the Nigerian Constitution, and published on Thursday, October 3, 2024, PLAC wrote: "The Constitution makes provisions for the recall of members of the National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly in sections 69 and 110, respectively. Implementation however is where the problem lies and there has not been a single case since 1999 (25 years and counting) where a legislator has successfully been recalled under the Constitution. The right to recall an elected legislator is one of the cornerstones of democratic governance, empowering constituents to hold their representatives accountable.
"Section 69 provides that: A member of the Senate or of the House Representatives may be recalled as such a member if: (a)there is presented to the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission a petition in that behalf signed by more than one-half of the persons registered to vote in that member's constituency alleging their loss of confidence in that member and which signatures are duly verified by the Independent National Electoral Commission; and (b) the petition is thereafter, in a referendum conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission within ninety days of the date of receipt of the petition, approved by a simple majority of the votes of the persons registered to vote in that member's constituency.
"Section 110 of the Constitution makes a similar provision with respect to the recall of a member of the State House of Assembly. These sections of the Constitution were amended in 2010 to include the words, "...and which signatures are duly verified by the Independent National Electoral Commission". This amendment adds a layer to the recall process by requiring that the signatures of the petitioners must be verified. The initial provision which did not include this phrase was loose, necessitating an amendment. However, it seems that legislators were much more concerned about increasing the impossibility of their recall by adding the clause that requires verification of petitioners' signatures."
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
Defiant Natasha shanks them
On Tuesday, April 1, 2025, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, against all odds, stormed her senatorial district where a large crowd had waited to receive her. The crowd defied the orders of the state government barring all forms of gathering and rallies, while the LG Chairman of the area imposed a curfew. These were all geared towards stopping the senator's home-coming.
Based on the breakdown provided by INEC and why the petition failed even before it started, Professor Yakubu and INEC got it right this time.
INEC deserves to be praised
However, words on the street are that the show of popular force, as depicted by the optics of the enthusiastic crowd of supporters of Senator Natasha, may have played in the minds of the operators of the system.
