A few days back, the speaker of the House of Assembly of Lagos state was removed from office over allegations of misconduct and abuse of office. 

 

After his removal, the Deputy Speaker, Mojisola Lasbat Meranda, was immediately elected as the new Speaker, becoming the first female Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly.

 

This got us thinking— we’ve written to you about how a President is impeached in Nigeria and how a governor is impeached. We’ve also written about how heads of court are removed from office. And in all of these procedures, the legislative arm plays a vital role. 

 

So how come we haven’t mentioned how the heads of the National Assembly and Houses of Assembly are removed? 

 

Since the legislative arm is at the forefront of the impeachment process for all other arms of government, how does their impeachment process take place?

 

Stick around, we’ve got answers.

 

The Constitution provides for the conditions upon which the leaders of the National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly may vacate office, under Section 50(2) and 92(2) respectively. The conditions are as follows:

In the case of the former Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, he was removed by a 2/3rd majority vote by other members of the House. 

 

As you would’ve guessed, he is not the only leader of a legislative house that has been removed from office in Nigeria.

 

Let’s take a quick history lesson on some of the past leaders of legislative houses in Nigeria that were removed from office.

 

He was removed after serving just a few months due to allegations of fraud and forgery of his academic qualifications. The allegations were that he falsified his name and caused a controversy as to whether his real name was Evan or Evans.

 

He was impeached following allegations of financial misconduct and abuse of office. Prior to that, the Police lay siege to his official residence in an operation to seize the Senate Mace from him but the operation failed. It was after then that the allegations sprung up and he was eventually removed on the grounds of those allegations.

 

1. Patricia Etteh (2007)

The first female Speaker of the House of Representatives was forced to resign after allegations of financial misappropriation involving a contract for renovations of the House.

 

Removed by the Edo State House of Assembly over allegations of financial misconduct.

 

Impeached over allegations of high-handedness and corruption.

 

3. Mudashiru Obasa (Lagos State, 2025)

Recently impeached by two-third majority of the Lagos State House of Assembly for alleged misconduct and abuse of office.

 

Apart from the leaders of legislative houses, the members of the Houses can also be removed from office. This process is referred to as the “recall”of a member of a legislative body. 

 

The Constitution provides for the process of recalling a member of the Senate and House of Representative under Section 69 and the same process applies to members of the House of Assembly of a state as provided under Section 110.

 

The process starts with a petition signed by more than half of the registered voters in a constituency, which is presented to the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). 

 

Here’s an example, assuming that the number of registered voters in a constituency is 50,000. At least 25,001 voters (more than half), must sign a petition and deliver it to the INEC Chairman. The signatures would then be verified to ensure that none is fake and all signatories are on the electoral register.

 

Within 90 days of receiving the petition, INEC will conduct a referendum in the constituency. If a simple majority vote in favour of removing the representative, then the INEC Chairman will issue a Certificate of Recall to the presiding officer of the legislative house to remove the representative.

 

Afterwards, a by-election would be conducted to elect the next representative. Note that the removed representative can still run if his or her party supports and nominates him/her for the election. 

 

Here’s an interesting fact- the process of recalling a legislator has never succeeded in Nigerian history. The first recorded attempt to recall a legislator was in 2005, when a petition was made to the INEC chairman to recall the then Deputy Senate President, Ibrahim Mantu. INEC failed to act on the petition before the 90-day deadline required by the constitution expired. As a result, the time had lapsed and the petition could no longer be addressed. 

 

An attempt was also made to recall the then Speaker of the Plateau State House of Assembly, Solomon Lalong in 2005. He however emerged victorious at the referendum. 

 

More recently, in 2017 there was an attempt to recall Senator Dino Melaye who represented the Kogi State Senatorial district. The attempt failed because INEC declared that a majority of the signatures on the petition were not verified signatures in the electoral register. Out of 189,870 signatories on the petition, only 18,742 signatories were verified. This number was of course, less than the required 51% of registered voters in the constituency. 

 

In our view, the reason no recall has been successful in Nigeria is because of the daunting procedure involved. For a country where voter apathy is prevalent and election turnout is typically low, gathering such a large number of signatures would pose an extraordinary challenge. 

 

For context, registered voters in many constituencies range from a few thousand to tens of thousands or more. Mobilizing half of that population outside an election cycle is logistically and financially demanding. Not to mention that the voter registration process is fraught with inaccuracies and incomplete data. Many registered voters may have relocated, misplaced their voting cards or simply be unavailable to participate in the recall process.

 

Even if INEC successfully verifies all the signatures, conducting a referendum introduces yet another significant hurdle of having to ensure that a majority of registered voters participate in the referendum and secure a favourable outcome for the recall. For example, voter turnout in the 2023 general elections was only about 27%. It’s unlikely that a recall referendum would see significantly higher participation.

 

One would wonder why the Constitution requires a referendum of a simple majority to vote for a recall when the petition that initiates the process must already be signed by the same proportion of registered voters in the constituency and verified by INEC. 

 

If the petition and the referendum share the same threshold, why can’t the verified signatures of the petitioners suffice as a vote for recall? Or in the alternative, the number of registered voters required to sign the petition should be significantly reduced.

 

Considering that in most elections, less than 50% of registered voters elect legislators, why is the threshold for recalling them set so high?

 

Unless the Constitution is amended to provide for a more practical and attainable procedure for recall, the current provisions would continue to remain purely academic and nothing more.
 

That just about sums up the process of recalling legislators and impeaching the leaders of legislative Houses in Nigeria. What do you think about these legal procedures? Let us know your thoughts via social media. 

 

 

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