STATE OF EMERGENCY DECLARATION: NIGERIA DEMOCRACY ENDANGERED AS TINUBU GOES FULL DICTATORSHIP OVER RIVERS STATE PARTY CONFLICT.

 Nigerianewslite 

In an unprecedented, unconstitutional move, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, yesterday, pronounced a six-month state-of-emergency declaration on Rivers State, ousting Governor Siminalayi Fubara, the democratically elected governor of the mineral-rich critical geopolitical zone in the South-South region of the country. 

Plunging the state into chaos, Tinubu ordered a dreaded return to military rule in the state with Vice Admiral Ibot-Eke Ekwe Ibas, an alleged close ally of immediate past Governor of the State and current FCT Minister–Nyesom Wike, ordered to oversee the state. 

By the order, Tinubu unilaterally and autocratically contravenes section 305 of the Nigerian constitution which grants a sitting president zero rights for the removal of a democratically elected governor, in a state of emergency declaration, except by acts of parliament as enshrined in section 188.  

Sir Siminalayi Fubara’s suspension, together with the Deputy Governor of Rivers state and members of the State House of Assembly, has received widespread condemnation by patriotic Nigerians who expressed utter disappointment on the action of the President. 

Crisis started for Rivers state, an embattled key-ground state, after 27 state parliament members loyal to the immediate past governor-turned-FCT-minister, Nyesom Wike, allegedly defected from the People's Democratic Party (PDP) to the nation’s ruling All Progressive Congress (APC). Voiding their seats vacant in line with constitutional cross-party defection laws, the decision of the State court was overturned by a March 7 Supreme Court ruling—a decision perceived by many as a further deepening of the rot in the nation's judicial arm. 

Riding on the hills of an anomalous apex court and an ex-governor at enmity with his successor, these 27 parliament members have gone on to disrupt the state political system—first with the barricade of the Assembly gate on bill presentation day, and more recently, the institution of impeachment proceedings against the duly elected state governor. 

Now with a warlike state-of-emergency declared in a peaceful state, the nation’s president appears to have inserted himself into a local crisis with such reckless graceless indignity. All hopes of reckoning peacemaker status to the 73-year-old leader, is lost as Tinubu transmogrified into full autocracy, plunging the state into economic and political uncertainty, in order to covet a key South-South region as a coupon for greedy party comrades.    

With one careless declaration, Nigeria's democracy, many fear, may have been dangerously ruptured—the cause: placing party politics over sacred constitution. Tinubu’s inability to call the FCT Minister (Nyesom Wike) to order, rebuke federal interference in state affairs, and unite warring factions is quite telling of the nation's current leadership. Declaring a state of emergency where neither war nor wanton destruction of lives exist is utterly condemnable, especially as the nation’s Northern region, currently ravaged by Boko Haram terrorists and Fulani Herdsmen massacre of Christians, is without a state of emergency declaration.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is encouraged to rescind the ugly, unprecedented, unconstitutional decision and work assiduously to restore faith in democratically elected governance to Rivers State. Dialogue–not draconian declarations–can achieve this, as Nigeria cannot afford another crisis in the oil rich Niger Delta region.

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