Nigeria’s long-time experiment with the recall process was recently reignited again, dominating the country’s political space with drama, tension, and anxiety.
Barely two weeks ago, Kogi Central constituents began an attempt to recall their senator, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, following her suspension from the country’s upper legislative chamber over alleged misconduct.
For context, Senator Natasha was suspended for six months by the Senate on March 6, 2025, after recommendations by the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges, and Public Petition, chaired by Senator Neda Imasuen. The suspension came after the Kogi Senator’s shouting match with the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, over seat rearrangement, Tribune Online reports.
While the new twist to the development was Natasha accusing Akpabio of sexual harassment, her constituents claimed the recall process was necessitated because she’s not representing their interest any longer, citing an incident at the Senate which would, by implication, deny them representation for six months.
After a Lokoja court lifted its injunction, the constituents proceeded with the process, and a petition, with six bags containing signatures from Natasha’s constituents, was subsequently submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Monday, 24th March 2025.
According to one of the petitioners, Mrs. Charity Omole, over half of the 474,554 registered voters spread across 902 Polling Units in 57 Registration Areas (Wards) in the five Local Government Areas of Adavi, Ajaokuta, Ogori/Magongo, Okehi and Okene, signed the petition.
However, INEC has picked holes in the petition to recall, saying it lacks contact details to meet requirements.
According to INEC, the recall process is enshrined in the 1999 Constitution, the Electoral Act 2022, as well as the Commission’s detailed Regulations and Guidelines for Recall 2024, assuring that “all petitions will be treated in strict compliance with the legal framework.”
While previous attempts have always failed, Natasha’s recall process is not the first in Nigeria since the return of democracy in 1999; some past lawmakers have faced same process:
- Architect George Ike Okoye
Following Nigeria’s return to democratic rule in 1999, the first shot at the recall process took place in 2000 and involved the member representing Njikoka II State Constituency in Anambra State.
Architect Okoye, the then-lawmaker on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), faced recall following a petition submitted to INEC; a referendum was said to have been conducted. Despite Okoye’s claim that the signatories in the petition were different from those in the voters’ register and subsequent court order restraining INEC from conducting the referendum, the nation’s electoral umpire also appealed the matter and got a ruling in its favour. However, the process failed at the referendum due to the low turnout of registered voters.
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- Simon Lalong
Lalong, who was then Speaker of the Plateau State Assembly, suffered the same fate as Okoye. Like Okoye, Lalong’s struggle with recall stalled at the referendum stage. The recall process failed as it couldn’t get the 50 percent votes required of the registered voters in the Shendam State constituency. Lalong went on to become the governor of Plateau State and is now a senator in the country’s Red Chamber.
- Farouk Adamu
Farouk, the then member representing Birnin-Kudu/Buji federal constituency of Jigawa in the House of Representatives, would have probably become the first lawmaker to be successfully recalled in the history of the country. However, for certain factors, the recall failed, and Farouk survived.
Like in the previous cases, INEC conducted the referendum in this exercise that happened on August 12, 2006. According to reports, 61,117 constituents voted for him to be recalled out of the total registered voters in his constituency, while 20,324 voted against it. But for other factors beyond the convincing margin in the surface figures, the INEC referendum was adjudged to have failed to meet requirements.
- Dino Melaye
Before Natasha, the recall attempt that is still fresh in the memories of Nigerians is that of former Senator Dino Melaye, who is also from Kogi State.
Melaye came under threat of being recalled from the Senate in 2017 when a group, under the umbrella of ‘Concerned Indigenes of Kogi West,’ started the ‘Dino-Must-Go campaign.
Like that of Natasha, these petitioners presented six bags of documents containing the signatures of the electorate from six council areas in the senatorial district to the INEC when they converged on their headquarters on May 21, 2017.
According to their petition subsequently submitted to INEC, the recall got endorsements from 52.3 percent – more than 50.1% required – of the 360,000 registered voters in the district.
While describing the move as ‘a comedy of errors’ that was bound to fail, the embattled Senator also pointed fingers at the then state governor, Yahaya Bello, as the mastermind.
But, after receiving the petition, INEC wrote to Melaye informing him of the recall petition and subsequently unveiled a timetable and modalities for the exercise.
However, the process later stalled when an Abuja Division of the Federal High Court ordered the parties involved in the planned recall of Senator Melaye to maintain the status quo.
While the above have had their constituents make moves to recall them, including submitting petitions to the INEC, some other lawmakers have also come under threats of being recalled by their constituents.
Among them was former Senate President Bukola Saraki, whom a group, the Kwara Youth Stakeholders Forum (KYSF), threatened to commence a recall process against over a face-off between the National Assembly and the federal government.
Other former lawmakers: Abdulmumin Jibrin Kofa, who represented the Bebeji/Kiru Federal Constituency of Kano State in the House of Representatives; Senator Suleiman Othman Hunkuyi, who represented the Kaduna North Senatorial District; and Senator Sunni Ogbuoji, who represented the Ebonyi South Senatorial District, among others, have also faced recall threats.
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