How do Petitions Work?
We are often cynical about things we do not know or fully understand and we habitually would not engage in an activity if its objective is not fully known or understood. I for one would constantly desire to know what my part in a thing is.
On good days, I am generally curious about systems, principles, and concepts and how they add (or not) to the general well-being of communities. Curiosity would have me asking questions like, how does this ‘thing’ work? Are we changed or not by it? What is my role in it?
That is why I wonder about- Petitions.
They seem like a good concept but the question is, do they work? And how do they work?
The term “petition” is not new to us. The practice of it is even more familiar. For example, there are several petitions for the powers that be, to upload Yebba’s tiny desk (home) concert and Beyonce’s “grown woman” on Spotify. (Seriously, if you happen to be part of those powers, kindly treat this as urgent. Thanks)
Since the beginning of time, people have always wanted to feel heard and assured that their opinions matter because it does and petitions look like they help with the necessary conversations and feedback that need to keep happening between consumers and producers and the government and the governed.
They sound like a fantastic idea. I mean every other day, I meet at least 10 people who agree with me that some things NEED to change in our communities from the need to have more potent and effective institutions in our public service, to the desire of having reduced inequalities in our world, and so it would be so great if the11 of us, can put our thoughts and terms of the agreement, somewhere on paper and send it to those who need to fix up.
How can we use petitions to make our communities work? Are our voices heard through them? Would and do petitions work in Nigeria? What do we need to do to make them work?
L. Heerma van Voss in “Petitions in Social History: International Review of Social History”, describes petitions as requests for the redress of grievances or offers of advice concerning the resolution of personal and political issues of importance that are presented in writing to a person or authority with the power to alleviate the injustice or pursue a different course of action.
In the colloquial sense, a petition is a document addressed to some official and signed by numerous individuals who are demanding something. It may be oral, written, or even transmitted via the internet. Petitioning includes the right of individuals directly or indirectly to request the sovereign or parliament/senate/congress/the powers that may be, to redress grievances, heed protests, receive advice and consider relevant information.
The Copley First Amendment Center of America; a non-profit, nonpartisan organization that, seeks to preserve and protect the First Amendment of the USA- the right to freedom of speech, defines the word ‘petition’, as what can be used to describe any non-violent legal means of encouraging or disapproving government action. Petitions may be actions either directed at the judicial, executive, or legislative arm of a government. These actions may include lobbying, letter-writing, e-mail campaigns, testifying before tribunals, filing lawsuits, supporting referenda, collecting signatures for ballot initiatives, peaceful protests, and picketing.
“Petitions include all public articulation of issues, complaints, and interests designed to spur a government’s action” — Copely First Amendment Center
Some History
The right to ‘petition’ as we know it has been exercised in many societies over a long period under a variety of forms and names.
A. Würgler in “Voices from among the ‘silent masses’: Humble Petitions and Social Conflicts in Early Modern Central Europe” describes the early forms of petitions in Europe, this way:
“Petitions were usually addressed to the king or ruler, but could also be presented to lower orders of administration possessing a more immediate means of securing justice or carrying out desired changes. They also included pleas from those who were disenfranchised, notably women, who sought to bring their plights or concerns to the attention of the authorities for redress. Some of these petitions were highly localized, less formally phrased, and structured to raise specific issues.”
“Petitions, generally, are ancient. According to the BBC, historians have suggested that “the first documented petitions were from slaves building pyramids in ancient Egypt, who tried to petition for better working conditions.”
In early England, the right of anyone; whether male or female, enfranchised or not, to approach the sovereign or parliament directly for the redress of grievances or a solution to their problems was one of the basic rights enshrined in the common law of England and the various countries whose legal systems are derived from it. Petitioning was also subsequently incorporated into the laws and usages of the colonies and states which evolved as a result of English and British colonial activity.
According to this article by Tech Cabal, In Nigeria, people have often considered online petitions as Slacktivism: activism with minimal costs to participants.
Most of us wonder if e-petitions are worth anything in influencing decisions or bringing about the change we want to see done or do we just sign them because it signals that “at least, I did something?”
I believe that the reality of both viewpoints is important to consider but most of all, a high percentage of us, want the petitions we sign, to bring change to our communities. We want there to be a dialogue between us and law policymakers. We want our voices heard and our pains felt.
Change.org is claimed to be the world’s largest platform for social changes in form of petitions and campaigns with over 329 million users globally (as of Dec. 2019).
By this record, every day, millions of people use change.org to start, sign, and support petitions on issues that matter to their lives and communities, creating powerful campaigns that drive real change. These users act with the common belief that ordinary people should have a voice on the issues that impact their lives.
What this shows is that there is a ‘market’ for people who are desirous of being active stakeholders that have a say on what goes on in their communities, all over the world. People stretched across all political, social, and economic perspectives, from teenagers to senior citizens, experienced activists, and millions of people entirely new to civic action. People looking for a change.
Change.org’s principle for pushing forward petitions as a form of political advocacy is that “in creating a world where no one is powerless, we need social and political systems that ensure people everywhere have a voice on the issues that they care about.”
In my search for the assurance that when change.org asks me to add my signature to a petition, I would not be shouting to the void, I was able to see that while there are great strides petitions and campaigns have made across the world, petitions mainly work as a means to an end. So far, petitions mainly function as a way to raise awareness of a particular issue, to make people in communities, those in government or people in charge of the particularly complained issue, do something about it. But most of all, I saw that petition as a concept while great is still a work in progress.
“People sign petitions “out of a sense of duty and self-expression” and to “discharge their sense of responsibility”. They do it because they “hope it will draw attention [to the issue] and play a part in shifting the dynamic”
In the USA, Texan blogger; Bettina Elias Siegel started a campaign to stop the use of “pink slime” in schools’ lunches, (“pink slime” is generally seen as lean beef trimmings made from fatty beef carcass off-cuts which contains ammonia), and because of petitions and campaigns such as Bettina’s, the US Department of Agriculture has now allowed schools in the USA remove products containing pink slime from their cafeteria menus after Ms Siegel gathered more than 200,000 online signatures in nine days.
Bettina who also made a petition to block a McDonald’s infomercial from showing in local schools; popularly says:
“I think a petition can attract the attention of news media because it’s a very tangible indication of public interest.”
Maria de la Fuente, a 39- year-old scientist from Spain, launched a campaign after discrimination in her scientific career because of motherhood. Women scientists have a clear disadvantage over other applicants when being assessed on their professional merits during a specified period. According to this report from change.org, 304,126 supporters joined Maria’s campaign to stop the discrimination against women in science, and Pedro Sanchez; president of the Spanish government, supported the campaign. His words:
“Because all women have the right to exercise their profession without being penalized by motherhood. This government is committed to equality and conciliation at all levels and professions so that no one has to choose.”
The Spanish government also went on to approve the 2019 Strategic Health Action, which now ensures that interruptions due to researchers’ pregnancy, guardianship, or maternity leave are not taken into account when assessing their merits. In addition, a monitoring body was created to prevent workplace and/or sexual harassment. It will also implement measures and initiatives to ensure that prejudice does not prompt women scientists to abandon their careers.
How about this huge campaign that stopped the construction of a water bottling plant on the shore of lake Baikal?
Lake Baikal in Russia is unique with a special microclimate and biodiversity. After finding out that a water boiling plant was planned for construction on the shore of this lake, Zorikto Matanov started a petition to the Governor of the Irkutsk Region and the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia to stop the construction and avoid environmental damage to Lake Baikal (which is considered the deepest lake in the world). Once the petition hit around 1,000,000 signatures, Prime Minister Medvedev intervened and ordered the inspection of the construction. Afterwards, a court found the construction illegal and it was stopped.
Change.org records even more awesome and huge accomplishments in Women’s Rights, Health & Disabilities, Animal Rights, Global Heating and Environment, Economic Fairness, Children’s Rights, Human Rights & Immigration, and so much more- all achieved because they started with petitions and campaigns that demanded change.
What these records of accomplishments show more than anything is the fact that people want to participate in holding systems accountable, constantly review and maintain the value systems of their communities and have their voices heard.
The petition’s website, Change.org says that one of its petitions secures a campaign victory every hour globally. One of the campaigns it lists as a success is the 2015 petition to scrap the “tampon tax” — a sales tax on sanitary products — in the United Kingdom.
The organizer, Laura Coryton, was a student when she started the petition — and made headlines after more than 320,000 people signed up. Months later, the government said it would try to change the relevant European Union law so the tax could be removed.
Ms Coryton says she did not expect her petition to be so popular but believes it helped allow large numbers of people to document their desire for change. “320,000 signatures are much harder to ignore than one person writing to their Member of Parliament (MP),” she told the BBC. However, she’s keen to stress while the petition helped attract attention, there were many more factors behind the campaign’s success.
“So many people wrote to their MPs, started localized campaigns, or raised motions at their universities — it was a combination of traditional campaigning methods and petitions at the same time.”
In the United Kingdom, we see that there is room for issues gaining momentum through a petition at the government level.
For e-petitions on the parliament website, if a petition gets up to 10,000 signatures, the government will respond and those with 100,000 signatures will be considered for debate on the floor of the parliament. There are similar rules in Canada and the United States.
In Nigeria however, there appears to be no specific law that governs online petitions. This however does not mean that people in Nigeria do not have several petitions and campaigns open, waiting, and demanding change.
Far from the case.
There are several petitions online and offline from Nigerians demanding various forms of change. From petitions asking the legislature to amend provisions of the constitution for legal age, especially for girls in other to avoid the sickening cases of underage marriage to several ones asking the President of Nigeria to end the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU)’s strike keeping students of Public universities at home for almost a year, or the petition of We the People; a centre of Social Studies and Development in Nigeria, to the Governor of Cross River State, Nigeria to stop a horrific movement going on in Calabar, Southern Nigeria, where hundreds of children have been branded witches and wizards and thrown into the streets where they are viciously abused, sexually exploited and killed- petitions like these; that have been largely ignored by policymakers they are addressed to, abound on change.org.
These unanswered and often ignored petitions give the impression that online petitions are ineffective in Nigeria, but that may not altogether be the case.
As stated above, petitions are still very much a work in progress but we have seen through the victories gained across various countries in the world, that they do work and can be used as a vital instrument for change in any progressive society.
John Apollos Maton, a lawyer in Nigeria, who started two petitions on Change.org relating to ethnic clashes resulting from cattle grazing in Nigeria, says, “They [online petitions] can be a powerful driving force, the problem is that Nigerian leaders are backward. Most don’t even know how to operate mobile phones.”
So why go on? Why start petitions and campaigns to gather signatures and demand change on a social issue? Maton explains: “With this government’s restriction on gatherings and protests, online petitions are a very great way to assemble the people for a cause.” He also says that online petitions “bring foreign attention to all that is going on, so the Nigerian government cannot pretend nothing is happening”
The Consent Workshop, a foundation that works against rape, started a petition for a sex offenders’ registry based on the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act, 2015, which provides that a register for convicted sexual offenders shall be maintained and accessible to the public. “At 7,799 signatures, the petition was closed on Change.org, with victory announced. Nigeria now has a sex offenders’ registry.”
But the petition, by itself, did not bring about this change. Franklin Ugobude, Director of Media and Communications for the Consent workshop states:
“I strongly believe that online signatures were very influential in the area of citizen education and helped raise awareness for the issue. However, there was more work, even from sister organizations and bodies. There was RoLAC, a 4-year criminal justice program funded by the European Union, executed by British Council, and NAPTIP Nigeria. They had started the work of establishing a sex offender and a service provider register which is the registry that we have today”
What can make modern petitions more successful?
Petitions by themselves don’t do anything, but they can be a very valuable tool for change,” says Cristina Leston-Bandeira; a Professor of Politics at the University of Leeds, who specializes in petitions and public engagement.
It all comes down to “how campaigners use the petition to put pressure on their representatives.”
Campaigners and petitioners must realize that real pressure from them can bring change. We have to keep using our voices through agreement to demand change from our representatives because the alternative is, to remain silent about the things that matter and history has shown us that that is a recipe for disaster.
However, “thinking about petitions in isolation misses the fact that historically they’ve been essential to broader activism and campaigns — they are very important but rarely a solution in their own right.”
A look at change.org would show us millions of people making well-meaning and progressive petitions, people engaging in the process, and willing to participate in decision-making and the dialogue that moves their communities forward, however sadly, the ineffectuality of petitions still exists because the necessary regulatory and executive bodies refuse to act on them.
The advocacy instrument of petitions and campaigns would only work when they are officially and intentionally considered by policymakers as a vital means of making decisions that affect communities and are included as part of their decision and feedback process.
We can take a tip from other countries like Canada or the United Kingdom where petitions are officially considered and even acted on when they cross a particular threshold in terms of signatures.
Petitions are a great and useful form of political advocacy that can influence the course of events in our communities if we let them. They should be considered a vital instrument in the decision-making process and a dialogue channel that needs to remain open between communities and their government.
