The US-based Edo United for Home Land Empowerment, a human rights action movement, has called on members of Nigeria’s civil society to initiate the constitutional process of recalling corrupt and inept elected political office holders.
The organization, with headquarters in Boston in the state of Massachusetts, argued that part of the beauty of democracy was the people’s rights to decide who governs them, adding that the political class in Nigeria had failed the masses who elected them into office.
The group’s position was contained in a statement that detailed a study its members carried out in Nigeria. The study revealed widespread disenchantment by voters with the political class. The report cited extreme poverty among the masses, gross corruption, kidnapping, terrorism, lawlessness and insecurity in the country.
The statement, which was signed by Frank Ekhator, president; Emanuel Okunmwendia, director of publicity; Yvonne Omolayo Omoruyi, Secretary-General; Sam Edo, director of cyber security and research; Kienuwa Obaseki, director of education and outreach, and Adam Aliu Otokiti, director of research, challenged the Nigerian political class to rise to the responsibilities of their various offices.
“The Nigerian political class has failed the nation woefully, hence everything seems to be falling apart. Democratic governance empowers citizens to reward or punish public officials, based on performance. Our elected representatives must therefore be held accountable,” the group argued.
Edo United reminded Nigerians that the concept of accountability encompasses periodic political audits which may be followed by use of the process of recall, an instrument provided by Article 69 of the Nigerian Constitution empowering Nigerians to recall members of the House of Representative or Senate for dereliction of duties or ethical lapses.
The group noted that the recall instrument was seldom used, but noted that it “remains the most effective way for citizens to make elected office holders carry out their official responsibilities and to punish corruption and lack of performance. Every citizen has the right to demand transparency and accountability from elected government officials.”
The organization decried Nigerian masses’ habit of remaining silent over the lack of performance by elected officials, remarking that such silence encourages elected public officials to take the Nigerian people for granted and to believe that they can always buy the electorate with mere handouts, such as money, bags of rice and other edible inducements.
Edo United argued that Nigerians had “for too long allowed elected political office holders to operate the way they want, relying on godfathers and thugs. Many of these representatives now enjoy fabulous personal wealth with no legitimate origin, and this plutocracy has cast a dark shadow on democratic governance in the nation.”
It disclosed that its recent “national political health test on Nigeria” revealed that "the current security crisis is caused by across-the-board corruption, ideological and ethnic division, administrative ineptitude, [an] underfunded/incompetent military and security forces, and the failure of the three tiers of government—the executive, the legislature and the judiciary—to adequately perform their statutory responsibility of checks and balances.”
The organization noted that most members of the National Assembly and state houses of assembly hardly engage with their constituencies. Edo United accused these national and state legislators of failing to address issues that matter to their constituents, except in cases where the politicians can derive personal gains.
The organization also questioned how members of various state and national legislatures spend the funds allocated to them to hire political aides and operate offices in their various constituencies and districts, adding that many of these representatives have failed to show that they make appropriate use of funds.
Edo United enjoined all Nigerians to demand that their representatives justify their expenditure of all allocated funds. It also urged the electorate at various levels to start taking stock of the activities of their elected political office holders as is often done in countries with thriving democratic traditions. If particular elected officials are found wanting, Edo United said, then their constituents must begin to gather signatures to recall them.
“Nigerians must question the usefulness of the National Assembly, which shares legal responsibility with the President for national security and over-all good governance,” the group stated. It urged Nigerians to view the success of the country’s democracy as non-negotiable, adding that citizens ought to act decisively to save the nation from heartless politicians.
“Our political class needs to be taught a hard lesson by the electorate as we do not want any military incursion into our political system,” said Edo United.
The organization commended the U.S. Congress for appropriating extra funds for military and intelligence aid to Nigeria, adding that the total collapse of the Nigerian state would not be in the interest of the United States and Nigeria’s neighboring countries.
Edo United referred to widespread media reports of Nigerian soldiers’ low morale and lack of sophisticated and adequate weaponry to fight Boko Haram, culminating in a revolt by the rank and file at Maimalari Barracks in Maiduguri, capital of the terror-plagued Borno State. The irate soldiers shot at the official car of their commanding officer, Major General Ahmed Mohammed to express outrage over the loss of more than 30 men due to his alleged incompetence.
Edo United stated that the military mutiny and other such developments are echoes of a deeply unstable state, calling on all enlightened Nigerians to join together to arrest their country’s dangerous slide.
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