Political activist and African Democratic Congress (ADC) chieftain, Aisha Yesufu, has criticised members of the Rivers State House of Assembly over moves to impeach Governor Siminalayi Fubara and his deputy.
In a statement issued on Friday, Yesufu said lawmakers who have abandoned their duty of representing the people should be recalled from office.
However, she expressed concern over the challenges involved in recalling legislators, accusing the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of making the process unnecessarily difficult.
According to her, the lawmakers have become tools in the hands of political actors, noting that the welfare and lives of ordinary residents of Rivers State no longer appear to be their priority.
She explained that while the recall process appears democratic in principle, in reality, “it is almost impossible, not because citizens do not want accountability, but because the voters’ register in Nigeria is deeply flawed.”
Yesufu pointed out that INEC has itself acknowledged that the voters’ register contains the names of deceased persons, relocated individuals, and other ineligible entries, making it unreliable as an accurate record of eligible voters.
She added that the problem is longstanding, recalling that previous voter register clean-up exercises revealed widespread invalid registrations through biometric verification.
“In some cases, nearly half of new entries were invalid when first checked before cleanup,” she said.
According to Yesufu, this means the requirement of “50% of registered voters” for recall does not reflect the actual, living electorate but is instead “a number artificially inflated by outdated, inaccurate data.”
She argued that until the voters’ register is properly cleaned, verified, revalidated, and linked to credible identity systems, recall, “a vital democratic tool,” will remain unattainable, leaving power beyond the reach of citizens.
Yesufu maintained that if the recall threshold were aligned with the number of actual voters, such as “50% of actual votes cast or verified active registrants,” lawmakers would be more accountable.
She stressed that “if a lawmaker’s business is not to represent the people, protect their interests, and legislate for their well-being, but instead to serve the ambitions of a few political elites, then they have no business sitting in the legislative chambers.”
She concluded by saying the people of Rivers State deserve leaders who place public interest above personal ambition, adding that anything short of accountability, integrity, and effective governance amounts to “a betrayal of the trust the people placed in them.”