Never in the history of Nigeria’s presidential democracy has a federal legislator been successfully recalled. Antagonists of Senator Dino Melaye in his Kogi West Senatorial Constituency are thumping that they could be the first to achieve the landmark.

By Emmanuel Aziken, Political Editor

Section 69

9. A member of the Senate or of the House Representatives may be recalled

(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

(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.

Kogi State governor, Yahaya Bello and Dino Melaye

YESTERDAY some of the political associates of Governor Yahaya Bello were settling back in Lokoja and relaxing after the exerting job of assembling 188,588 signatures from the 360,098 registered voters in Kogi West to signal the recall from the Senate of Senator Dino Melaye. The signatories represent 52 per cent of the voters, a percentage point above the constitutional requirement of 51 per cent of signatures.

Senator Melaye, a former member of the House of Representatives and before then, a student activist had taken up a near singular crusade to demonise the administration in Lokoja over alleged claims of poor performance. Those against him are led by Chief Cornelius Olowo, who is from Melaye’s Ijumu Local Government area.

The fight to the finish between the senator and the governor again brings to light the unending rivalry between governors and senators. It is a game of cat and mouse with governors often depicted as the cat and senators as mice. Melaye is not the first to be so threatened with a recall. Several of his predecessors and including some still serving in the Senate had themselves been so threatened, but none had ever gathered the kind of momentum that has been organised against Melaye.

The first senator to be so threatened was Senator Fred Brume, who represented the Delta Central Senatorial District on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. Senator Brume had fallen out with the mainstream of the party in the state as led by Governor James Ibori. A fine gentleman who professed Christ, Brume was a close associate of President Olusegun Obasanjo and had been particularly peeved after the Ibori crowd midway into his first term took the resource control campaign to the United Kingdom.

Brume did not hide his opposition to the mode of the campaign which he considered as self-serving and out of sync with the felt needs of the people. It was in response that the then commissioner for education, Chief Ighoyota Amori, a senior member of the Ibori cabinet took the gauntlet to initiate the recall of Brume from the Senate.

Major rallying points

The exercise, however, did not gather enough steam as to threaten the senator. Though Brume survived the assault he, however, was stopped from a second term.

Senator Bala Mohammed who represented Bauchi South Senatorial District between 2007 and 2011 was another lawmaker who had a serious fallout with his governor that almost led to his recall. The story of the two men is one laced with betrayal, intrigues, and self-preservation.

Mohammed, a former journalist, had served as senior aide to Isa Yuguda in his previous political appointments and was one of the major rallying points for Yuguda’s governorship project in 2007. Mohammed was elected senator at the same time that Yuguda was elected governor. However, not long after, the chemistry between the two men began to erode as Yuguda who was elected on the platform of the All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP was accused by Mohammed and others of betraying the party and General Muhammadu Buhari with his fraternisation with the PDP.

After Yuguda married the daughter of President Umaru Yar‘adua and defected to the PDP, all hell was let loose as the relationship between both men broke down leading to what was alleged as an organised move by the state administration to recall Mohammed from the Senate. However, before the move could gather strength, Yar‘adua died, and Mohammed was compensated with the position of minister for the role Nigeria Integrity Group, NIG headed by Senator Ehigie Uzamere played in the enthronement of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan as Acting President. Just like Mohammed before him, Senator Malam Wakili who now represents Bauchi South Senatorial Constituency has had a running battle with the incumbent governor of the state, Governor Mohammed Abubakar. The squabble has led to insinuations of a plan to recall Senator Wakili by a group dubbed the Bauchi South Democratic Forum. The group according to associates of Senator Wakili is being bankrolled by the governor.

Senator Suleiman Hunkuyi representing Kaduna North Senatorial District is another senator in the 8th Senate who has also been threatened with recall. Those moving against him are coming under the aegis of the Concerned Citizens of Northern Kaduna Senatorial District and are led by Mr. Mohammed Lawal Shehu.

The move against Senator Hunkuyi is surprising and is definitely one in which a state governor cannot be said to be involved in given that Hunkuyi is the only one of the three senators in cordial terms with Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State.

Senator Shehu Sani, the more rabid critic of Governor El-Rufai, has also been threatened with recall. The move against him was initiated by a group dubbed as the Concerned Citizens of Kaduna State. Their effort which was only in the media was also countered in the media space by a trenchant pro-Sani group, Kaduna Renaissance Initiative (KRI) which described the threat as unrealistic and uncalled for.

Other senators who in the past had been threatened with recall include Senator Arthur Nzeribe who was threatened after he moved the motion for the impeachment of President Obasanjo sometime around 2000; Senator Joseph Waku after he allegedly called for coup at the beginning of the Fourth Republic.

Adequate representation

In the present Senate, among those who have been threatened with recall include Senator Andy Uba, a former governor who was threatened by Dynamic Youth Organisation of Nigeria, an organisation which accused the senator of not giving adequate representation to his constituents. The group’s move never got off the ground as it never forwarded a petition or even put an address to its base.

The move against Senator Melaye is, however, the most organised and most potent of all threats ever made against a lawmaker. Melaye was, however, yesterday laughing off the moves describing it as a comedy of errors saying that those involved would go to jail.

His confidence some claim is that some of the signatories may have been forged. However, one of the organisers was himself of the claim yesterday saying that all the signatories had their Permanent Voter Cards enlisted to their signatures.

A senior official of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC told Vanguard yesterday that the next step is for the commission to verify the signatures following which if confirmed, then a referendum would be conducted. According to section 69 of the constitution, the recall will succeed if half plus one of the registered voters in the constituency endorse the move.  Whether they succeed or not, the present move has removed the concept of immunity from federal legislators.