Recall of Legislators

The primary role of the Legislature is to make laws, laws that reflect and protect the interest of the public. Legislators are elected to represent the views of their respective constituency in this law making process. Therefore, it is expected that legislators engage citizens/constituents, to effectively discharge their duties. In some cases Legislators tend to put party and personal agendas over the public interest.
What happens when legislators are failing in their primary duties? What can the citizenry do, when they lose confidence? Well, the good news is, the Constitution already envisaged that. The constituents hired  representatives with their votes, therefore the constituents also reserves the right and powers to fire them with votes, if  their representatives are performing below expectations or drifting away from their job description.
To recall a member of the National Assembly is the Constitutional right of the electorate. The constituents gives their mandate to a legislator, and any form of misuse or non-usage of the mandate, makes him/her liable for a recall. A quick look at what the Constitution says about recall of members; 

Section 110 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended says 

A member of the House of Assembly 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  

(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.

The basis for recall according to the provisions of the Constitution is loss of confidence, and loss of confidence in its interpretation has an extensive meaning.The 8th Assembly will be inaugurated tomorrow, it is imperative that the public engage their representatives and hold them accountable at every step of the way.