My friend and high school classmate at the Government College Umuahia, the Honorable Obi Aguocha, Labour Party member representing Ikwuano/Umuahia Constituency at the House of Representatives, stood up to demand that a physical roll count be taken to establish the quorum of the House of Representatives.
This was with regards to what indeed turned out to be the sham votes taken to endorse President Tinubu’s declaration of state of emergency in Rivers State. In his declaration, the Nigerian President suspended the Constitution of Rivers State as established, and put the governor, the deputy governor, and the state House of Assembly on ice. This was, very clearly, unprecedented. It is power grab, and it is executive overreach; and it rankled every thoughtful Nigerian.
The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) was quite upfront when it immediately went on the record to declare the move by the President an illegality, and a very serious breach of the Constitution. Nigerians were still in daze at the brazen action by a President whose increasing autocracy points to what many critics of the Nigerian state are contending to be signs of the dead end of Nigeria’s pretentions to democratic rule.
Mr. Tinubu is out of touch with Nigerians, and is out of touch with reality. In the first place, the President of Nigeria was not granted any such power in the Constitution to summarily declare a state of emergency, much less sack, suspend, or countermand a state government, except such emergency powers are first sought, and granted by the National Assembly through a highly determined procedural vote. For such a state of emergency to be declared and for the President to be granted these emergency powers, there must be complete breakdown of law and order, and there must be a threat to the national security of Nigeria.
Rivers State did not meet the threshold of such an action in the first place, and, besides, Mr. Tinubu had peremptorily removed the governor and the entire government of Rivers State, before even approaching the National Assembly. Nigerians had hoped that the National Assembly would finally step up to the plate and rescue Nigeria from Tinubu’s emergent autocracy, and from a constitutional crisis. This was quite simply the minimum expectation.
There were many who had hoped that the National Assembly would finally find its oomph, and proceed with an impeachment notice on Bola Ahmed Tinubu for a serious breach of the Constitution, and for abuse of office. Tinubu’s action is a violation of the Sovereignty Act, which grants the federating states the protection of status as is granted the central government.
Very simply put, under the federation, the states as federating units are independent states of the union, and the President exists in relation with the elected governors of these states on the basis of primus inter pares. That is, first among equals. He is not their boss. He is actually, in many regards, their equal.
Tinubu’s action in “suspending” the government of Rivers State is a direct attack on the sovereign rights of the people of Rivers State. What the Federal Government under Tinubu’s executive authority has done is to carry out a statutory coup against a federating state. The next day, he sought to legitimize his illegal conduct by blackballing the National Assembly into endorsing his action. The declarations of the two chambers are a let down on Nigerians. It is endorsement, way after the fact, and is not, therefore, legislation. It lacks legitimacy.
It was manipulated by members of the APC, who do not have the votes to push through this, to indemnify Mr. Tinubu’s illegitimate and egregious actions against the Constitution of the Republic. It is sheer madness! For example, when the Honorable Obinna Aguocha rose to demand for a body count of legislators in order to secure the constitutional process, he was promptly ruled out of order by the frazzled Speaker of the House of Representatives, who refused to take a head count of the members of the HOR, to establish if indeed there was quorum.
Yet, from the pan of the television cameras covering that assembly, Nigerians could very easily see the empty seats, and that there was no quorum to take that vote in the House. Yet, the Speaker endorsed Tinubu’s illegality with a voice vote.
The Senate was even more serious. Still engrossed with a sex scandal, and the suspension of a vocal senator who has accused him of sexual misconduct, it would have been out of character if Godswill Akpabio had led the Senate to play a straight bat on this one. And no, he did not. Tinubu’s action was debated in a closed session, and yet again, a voice vote taken to endorse the state of emergency in Rivers State. The process was sham. It consolidates Tinubu’s authoritarian grip on power, preparatory to 2027. That is what all these is about.
Rivers is a must-win state for Tinubu if he is to retain power. Sim Fubara has refused to play ball and align with Nyesom Wike, who has been used by Bola Tinubu to disrupt, and undermine civil government in Rivers State from the get-go. Nyesom Wike was used to win the election for Tinubu in 2023, and this current coup by Tinubu only waters the ground for the installation of a proconsul to effect a complete APC takeover of Rivers State preparatory to 2027.
The facts of these events also highlight the dilemma created by the 1999 Constitution which endowed extraordinary powers on the President of the federation, and on the executive arm of government. With the governors of the federating units dependent on the whims of the President for their own security, they are pretty much vulnerable to subversion. The fact that the President has absolute control of the instruments of state coercion makes that possible. He has no constitutional limits. He can ignore the courts because both prosecutorial and enforcement powers lie with him. Tinubu proves that any President, drunk on power or on ‘Akpuruachia’, could just simply wake up one morning, and sack an entire government of the state.
The heavens will not fall in Nigeria. That has always been the mindset of the kakistocratic clan that currently rules Nigeria. The heavens will not fall, they say. They are daring, and they are not afraid of Nigerians. Nigerians are too benighted to act. Too sorry for themselves. Too broken and impoverished.
Nigerians can only now hope that with the collapse of the National Assembly that the Supreme Court might offer them the last reprieve of correcting this constitutional breach. I myself, have no such hope. The Supreme Court has proved itself to be a lackey to executive power. The current Chief Justice of Nigeria Kekere-Ekun has been the butt of serious criticism, and allegations. She has been accused of turning a candidate who came fourth in an election into the winner of that election. What I know is that the court under her leadership has a responsibility to restore justice to Rivers State.
The Supreme Court must not affirm the illegality of this presidential action, nor of the National Assembly. The job of the National Assembly is not to “endorse” a declaration of a state of emergency after the fact. It must make a declaration leading to a state of emergency. A state of emergency does not mean the suspension of the governor, his deputy, and the State Assembly. The Constitution outlines the steps that must be taken. Those steps were not taken. The Constitution is clear that where there is a crisis in the State Assembly, the National Assembly must take over the function of that Assembly and make laws for that state.
The National Assembly did not take that constitutional step. The Constitution does not give the President the power to suspend an elected governor of a state, and thereafter come to the National Assembly for an endorsement. The only condition for which the National Assembly can grant the power to declare a state of emergency in a state is if there is a complete breakdown of law and order. There was no complete breakdown of law and order in Rivers State. There was a constitutional dispute between the governor and a faction of the House of Assembly.
Why has the President not declared a state of emergency on Lagos over the Obasa issue, or in Niger State just miles from the seat of the Federal Government, where Boko Haram has planted a flag and threatens the federal capital of Nigeria, or in Katsina or Zamfara where law and order no longer exist? He says the action in Rivers State is to protect strategic national infrastructure following the blow-up of oil pipelines.
The question is, is Sim Fubara in charge of the navy or the amphibious brigade, or security agencies that should keep their eyes on these installations? Tinubu is in charge of these agencies. If anybody should resign, it must be the President, who has done a very poor job of protecting Nigerians. So, this action in Rivers State is at best a deflection, and at worse, senseless and provocative power grab. It must not be allowed to stand.
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