It is proper that the six-month emergency rule imposed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to halt the descent into political anarchy in Rivers State has been vacated after its expiration. It is equally proper that the democratically elected governor, Siminalayi Fubara, his deputy, Ngozi Nma Odu, and the lawmakers have all returned to their offices. The disruption of democratic governance in the state on March 18, 2025, should never have occurred. We condemn the actors who contributed to the enactment of that sad episode in our democratic experience. It should never happen again.
The constitutionality of the emergency rule is itself now a subject of legal debate. Hopefully, a jurisdictional consensus will be reached regarding the appropriate deployment of the rule, as provided in Section 305 of the 1999 Constitution. The Section outlines the conditions for applying an emergency rule, which include wartime situations, invasion of the country, imminent breakdown of law and order, natural disasters, or as may be requested by a governor with the support of two-thirds of the members of the House of Assembly. The procedure to declare an emergency is clear: it begins with a proclamation by the President, which is published in the Official Gazette. The approval by a two-thirds majority of the National Assembly is a constitutional requirement.
However, it is the interplay between politics and declaration of emergency that is always the bone of contention, even as far back as 1962 when emergency rule was declared in the defunct Western Region. While there was evidence that law and order had broken down as a result of a power struggle within the Action Group (AG), a perceptive reading of the situation at the time suggested that the anarchy was orchestrated. The implications of that conspiracy and collusion have been far-reaching. Anarchy became the remote enabler of the first military intervention in the country’s governance. The political class must be careful.
Similarly, the situation in Rivers was a reckless display of political chicanery. It was the outcome of the hijacking of political institutions by persons, not for the enrichment of the system but for pure self-aggrandisement. We denounce the shenanigans, the stalemate and eventual abrogation of democratic rule in the state for six months. It is a shame that the situation was allowed to degenerate despite democracy’s in-built provisions for checks and balances. It is a shame that both the judiciary and legislature pandered to parochial interests, rather than fight to defend and uphold constitutionalism.
Ultimately, Rivers State is the loser. The state lost six months of democratic rule. It can never be regained. The evil seeds sown by emergency rule will haunt the state and country for a long time. The one-man rule represented by the sole administrator, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ette Ibas (rtd), has left behind a trail of constitutional infractions. He made appointments that were not vetted by the legislature. He forced through the conduct of local government elections despite glaring irregularities. Rivers’ stakeholders drew attention to the loopholes, but the Sole Administrator refused to listen.
The Rivers’ stakeholders counselled that there was no legally constituted Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC), as mandated in Sections 2,3,5 and 12 of the RSIEC Law 2018; that going by provisions of both RSIEC and the Constitution, only the elected governor, upon confirmation by the House of Assembly, is empowered to appoint the chairman and members of RSIEC; that the illegal RSIEC constituted by the Sole Administrator ignored the mandatory 90-day notice requirement as stipulated in the RSIEC Law. Their concerns were ignored.
We hold that Ibok-Ette Ibas need not hurry to conduct the council polls on August 30, as it was approximately 18 days to the expiration of the emergency rule. Why was he hell-bent and unmindful? He might have acted beyond his powers and in the manner of someone with a predetermined agenda. Rather than act in the capacity of a neutral arbiter, his mood betrayed his preferences.
We denounce the absence of a level playing field in the council elections. Electoral participation is well served if it is not done by deliberate manipulation of the democratic space. What took place was a sham election, and we demand that it be contested to prevent a recurrence. The rule of law must be the norm rather than the rule of individuals.
We hope that members of Rivers’ political class have learnt lessons from the emergency rule. They must refrain from acts that endanger democratic rule in the state and the country. The people must be vigilant and refrain from surrendering their political sovereignty to a handful of jobbers. Their full participation and ownership of the electoral space is the antidote to one-man misrule.
Never again should the travesty in Rivers State be condoned. The National Assembly, charged with overseeing the emergency rule, failed to meet expectations. The legislature failed to rein in an uncooperative sole administrator whose lust for power became a national embarrassment. Let it never happen again!
