President Bola Tinubu is getting a lot of flak for declaring emergency rule in Rivers State and suspending the governor, Mr Siminalayi Fubara and his deputy, Prof Ngozi Odu as well as the state assembly legislators.
Recall that the president had in a nationwide broadcast yesterday announced the declaration of a state of emergency in Rivers because of a deep political logjam.
Tinubu had blamed the governor for not resolving the impasse, particularly, his non-implementation of the Supreme Court’s judgement of some consolidated appeals as they affect, among other issues the presentation of the 2025 budget to the house of assembly.
“On February 28, 2025, the Supreme Court, in a judgment in respect of about eight consolidated appeals concerning the political crisis in Rivers State, based on several grave unconstitutional acts and disregard of rule of law that have been committed by the Governor of Rivers State as shown by the evidence before it pronounced in very clear terms: “a government cannot be said to exist without one of the three arms that make up the government of a state under the 1999 Constitution as amended. In this case the head of the executive arm of the government has chosen to collapse the legislature to enable him to govern without the legislature as a despot. As it is there is no government in Rivers State.”
“The above pronouncement came after a catalogue of judicial findings of constitutional breaches against the Governor Siminalayi Fubara.
“Going forward in their judgment, and having found and held that 27 members of the House who had allegedly defected “are still valid members of Rivers State House of Assembly and cannot be prevented from participating in the proceedings of that House by the 8th Respondent (that is, the Governor) in cohorts with four members”
“The Supreme Court then made some orders to restore the state to immediate constitutional democracy.
“These orders include the immediate passing of an Appropriation Bill by the Rivers State House of Assembly which up till now has not been facilitated,” the president said.
Besides, he said both the house of assembly and the governor had been working at cross purposes, not realizing that “they are in office to work together for the peace and good governance of the state.
The president further said some militants had threatened fire and brimstone “against their perceived enemy of the governor who has up till now NOT disowned them.
“The latest security reports made available to me show that between yesterday and today there have been disturbing incidents of vandalisation of pipelines by some militant without the governor taking any action to curtail them,” he added.
With the foregoing, Tinubu said “no good and responsible President will standby and allow the grave situation to continue without taking remedial steps prescribed by the Constitution to address the situation in the state, which no doubt requires extraordinary measures to restore good governance, peace, order and security.”
He said he had “soberly reflected on and evaluated the political situation in Rivers State and the governor and deputy governor of Rivers State having failed to make a request to me as President to issue this proclamation as required by section 305(5) of the 1999 Constitution as amended, it has become inevitably compelling for me to invoke the provision of section 305 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as amended, to declare a state of emergency in Rivers State with effect from today (yesterday), 18th March, 2025 and I so do.
By the declaration, he said Fubara, his deputy, Mrs Odu and all elected members of the state assembly “are hereby suspended for an initial period of six months.”
The president also announced the appointment of a former chief of naval staff, Vice Admiral Ibokette Ibas (retd) as the administrator “to take charge of the affairs of the state in the interest of the good people of Rivers State.”
He said the administrator will not make any new laws, but will, however, “be free to formulate regulations as may be found necessary to do his job.”
Reacting to the president’s action, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said in a statement by its spokesman, Mr Debo Ologunagba that Tinubu has no power to suspend a democratically elected governor.
“The PDP outrightly rejects this attempt by the President to override the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) and undermine the votes and will of the people of Rivers by seeking to depose a democratic government and foist an undemocratic rule in the State.
“The unconstitutional declaration by President Tinubu of the suspension of the democratically elected Governor of Rivers, Siminalayi Fubara and appointment of an unelected individual, Vice Admiral Ibokette Ibas (rtd), to govern the State is a clear attack on our nation’s democracy.
“It is an abrogation of the votes and democratic right of the people of Rivers State to choose their leader under the Constitution,” the party said.
Ologunagba also described it as a clear attempt at state capture and a well-oiled plot to forcefully take over Rivers for the All Progressives Congress (APC).
He said the reasons adduced by the president could not justify the declaration of a state of emergency in the state under the 1999 Constitution, rendering the declaration completely incompetent.
Ologunagba said the unwarranted imposition of emergency rule in Rivers State was part of a plot to foist a siege mentality across Nigeria, decimate the opposition and impose a one-party State
“In any case, nothing in Section 305 of the 1999 Constitution relied upon by the president in the declaration grants him the exclusive powers to declare or execute the declaration of a state of emergency without recourse to the statutory approval of the National Assembly.
“For the avoidance of doubt, Section 305 (2) provides that ‘The President shall immediately after the publication, transmit copies of the Official Gazette of the Government of the Federation containing the proclamation including the details of the emergency to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives;
“Each of whom shall forthwith convene or arrange for a meeting of the House of which he is President or Speaker, as the case may be, to consider the situation and decide whether or not to pass a resolution approving the proclamation.
“Mr President should recognise that his order to an unelected individual to forthwith take over the government of Rivers State is illegal and a clear recipe for the crisis, a threat to the peace and stability of not only Rivers State but the entire nation,” the PDP spokesman said.
The parry also cautioned the administrator to respect the Constitution and ensure that he does not take any action or step capable of derailing smooth democratic governance in Rivers State.
“Nigeria is not under a military rule where the governance of a State is by appointment by a junta,” he added.
Similarly, one-time attorney general and commissioner of justice in Akwa Ibom State, Mr Uwemedimo Nwoko described as “ill-advised” the decision to declare a state of emergency in Rivers State.
“The president’s action is not well thought out. The situation in Rivers State has not met any of the conditions prescribed by the constitution for the declaration of a state of emergency by the president. It falls short of it.
“So the president’s action is ill-advised and not based on the provisions of the Constitution. For me, it is part of a script to take over the control of Rivers State, which they had already written and have been acting stage-by-stage and scene-by-scene,” he said.
The former president of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), Mr Eric Omare described the president’s action as “wrong decision.”
“President Tinubu took a wrong decision; I strongly condemn his one-sided action, and again, removing Governor Fubara won’t solve the problem.”
“The president’s intervention in the Rivers State crisis has been one-sided. His actions and body language have encouraged the FCT Minister, Wike, to fuel the crisis up to this point.
“If Governor Fubara is blamed for not doing enough to handle the situation, what has the president done in response to Wike’s unnecessary outbursts, which laid the foundation for the tension in the past week?
“I think that an unbiased president should have called Wike to order or sack him to demonstrate his unbiased position in this matter. But from the onset, the president has been biased in favor of Wike, and that has not helped in the resolution of the crisis.
The former national spokesman of the Movement for the Survival of Ijaw Ethnic Nationality in the Niger Delta (MOSIEND), Mr Amaebi Clarkson said the emergency rule “is in bad faith.”
“I am sure the governor would challenge the constitutionality or legality of the state of emergency. But politically, the emergency is in bad faith and obviously, the execution of a well-oiled script hatched in furtherance of the 2027 election.’’
“The president did not act like a president of the entire nation, but rather he took sides with his minister to punish the governor and left out any punishment to his appointee. He executed the plan of Wike.
“Firstly, Wike goaded the Ijaw by going to their homeland to provoke them, but he did get the needed reaction. Then the next day, there was an explosion in an oil facility, and shortly before the broadcast, there was another explosion, which he hinged upon as one of the core reasons for the declaration.
“I also think that members of the governor’s tribe were not strategic. They were too flippant with threats, which the opposition may have capitalised on,” he said.
To the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), President Tinubu’s action is “oppression and intimidation” of the Ijaw people.
IYC, Worldwide, has condemned the declaration of a state of emergency in Rivers State, describing it as a clear “case of oppression and intimidation of Ijaw people.”
“We condemn the state of emergency declared on Rivers State by President Bola Tinubu, the reason being that we have states that have been boiling and grappling with insurgency; Boko Haram and herdsmen have held sway, perhaps, because it is Ijaw matter.
“We see it as a case of oppression and intimidation meted out on the Ijaw people and the people of Rivers State in particular, and for the man who fuelled the whole crisis—nothing has been done or said about him, the spokesman for IYC, Mr Binebai Princewill said in a statement.
