PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu has illegally declared a state of emergency in Rivers State after lampooning former President Goodluck Jonathan for doing the same thing in 2013, showing Nigerians that he is not afterall any different.

In a nationwide broadcast on Tuesday night, President Tinubu removed the democratically elected Governor Sim Fubara and his deputy, Ms Ngozi Odu. He also suspended all elected members of the House of Assembly of Rivers State, appointing Admiral Ibokette Ibas as the administrator for Rivers State.

In 2013, President Jonathan had declared a state of emergency in Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe after a series of deadly attacks by Islamist militant groups.

Tinubu himself, then one of the opposition leaders, knocked President Jonathan for taking the decision, claiming that he “intimidated and emasculated” the governors of these states.

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“The body language of the Jonathan administration leads any keen watcher of events with unmistakable conclusion of the existence of a surreptitious but barely disguised intention to muzzle the elected governments of these states for what is clearly a display of unpardonable mediocrity and diabolic partisanship geared towards 2015,” Tinubu said.

Tinubu’s hypocrisy

While Mr Tinubu did what he openly criticised, he also showed an open bias in his broadcast, criticising Governor Fubara and leaving his ally, Mr Nyesom Wike, who openly backed the Rivers State House of Assembly to remove the governor.

“Also, it is public knowledge that the Governor of Rivers State for unjustifiable reasons, demolished the House of Assembly of the state as far back as 13th December 2023 and has, up until now, fourteen (14) months after, not rebuilt same. I have made personal interventions between the contending parties for a peaceful resolution of the crisis, but my efforts have been largely ignored by the parties to the crisis. I am also aware that many well-meaning Nigerians, Leaders of thought and Patriotic groups have also intervened at various times with the best of intentions to resolve the matter, but all their efforts were also to no avail. Still, I thank them.”

Mr Tinubu then cited the February 28 Supreme Court judgment, which brought back the 27 members of the Rivers State House of Assembly, blaming Mr Fubara for “grave unconstitutional acts and disregard of rule of law.”

He quoted the judgment of the apex court, noting that, “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.”

According to Mr Tinubu, “The above pronouncement came after a catalogue of judicial findings of constitutional breaches against the Governor Siminalayi Fubara.”

Political watchers have described Mr Tinubu’s speech as “full of hollow statements meant to achieve predetermined plots.”

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A human rights activist, Mr Abel Kokori, said the state of emergency was the height of rascality and abuse of presidential powers.

“This is the height of hypocrisy and authoritarianism. How can the so-called father of a nation desperately remove a democratically elected governor, blame him for refusal to submit the resources of the state to one man, exonerate his minister who is clearly the aggressor, and then impose an administrator on a state. What democracy we practise,” he said.

Tinubu’s illegality

The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has described the suspension of democratically elected officials as unconstitutional and a dangerous precedent for Nigeria’s democracy.

In a statement released Tuesday night, NBA President, Mr Afam Osigwe (SAN), said: “The NBA is gravely concerned about the purported suspension by the President of the Governor of Rivers State, the Deputy Governor, and the Members of the Rivers State House of Assembly for six months,” the statement reads. “The 1999 Constitution does not grant the President the power to remove an elected governor, deputy governor, or members of a state’s legislature under the guise of a state of emergency.”

The NBA said Section 305 of the constitution empowers the president to declare emergencies but includes strict conditions and procedural safeguards that must be followed. The NBA questioned whether the situation in Rivers State meets any of the six constitutional thresholds for such a declaration, which include war, external aggression, breakdown of public order beyond conventional legal remedies, threats to national existence, or natural disaster.

“Political disagreements, legislative conflicts, or executive-legislative tensions do not constitute a justification for emergency rule,” the NBA noted.

The NBA also highlighted that any emergency proclamation would require the National Assembly approval within two days if in session, or within 10 days after reconvening if not in session, meaning the declaration ‘remains constitutionally inchoate and ineffective’ without legislative ratification.

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The NBA asked the National Assembly to reject attempts to ratify the removal of Rivers State elected officials and noted that suspending them under emergency rule creates a dangerous precedent.

“The removal of elected officials under the pretext of emergency rule is unconstitutional and unacceptable. Nigeria’s democracy must be protected at all costs, and the Constitution must be upheld as the supreme legal authority in all circumstances.”

Former senator and presidential adviser, Mr Babafemi Ojudu, said: “How could the President willingly walk into a raging inferno with his eyes wide open? No, no, no… this must be the work of fifth columnists. The Tinubu I once knew would not have made such a reckless and unnecessary decision.”

He wondered whether the president realise that the Niger Delta crisis twice pushed Nigeria into recession under President Muhammadu Buhari.

“Has he been informed that at one point, Nigeria’s oil production collapsed to below 400,000 barrels per day, down from 2.5 million barrels per day? That catastrophic drop in production was a direct result of political mismanagement and conflict in the region,” Mr Ojudu noted.

“It took years of painstaking effort and immense risks to stabilize the region, stop the sabotage of oil infrastructure, and restore some level of production. I should know—I was part of that difficult and excruciating process.”

Lawyer and human rights activist, Mr Iniebehe Effiong, referred to his 2014 article entitled, “State Of Emergency: Before You Remove Those Governors.”

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The article had noted, “Under the present constitutional regime, an elected state governor can only cease to hold office by impeachment, resignation, permanent incapacitation, death and by expiration of tenure. Any attempt to remove an elected state governor under the guise of declaration of the so-called “full state of emergency” will be unconstitutional. Though such action is supported by the precedent set in Plateau State during the Olusegun Obasanjo dispensation, it remains an illegality and we all know Obasanjo with his military back ground had an unenviable record of illegalities and disdain for democratic ethos and Rule of Law during his sadistic and despotic days in power.:

He said the phrase “sole administrator” was a constitutional aberration which could not be found, not even impliedly, in any of the 320 sections of the 1999 Constitution.