• ‘Like Tinubu would, Fubara should have approached courts’
• Presidency slams Obasanjo over comments on Rivers
Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) has warned that the dismissal of political appointees by the Sole Administrator of Rivers State, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (rtd), poses a significant threat to democracy. For former presidential spokesman, Laolu Akande, Siminalayi Fubara should be the first to challenge his suspension as Rivers governor.
 
Meanwhile, the Presidency has rebuffed former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s criticism of President Bola Tinubu’s declaration of emergency rule in oil-rich Rivers. 
 
Executive Director of CISLAC, Auwal Rafsanjani, in a chat with newsmen, yesterday, described the move as a state capture attempt in favour of the All Progressives Congress (APC). He accused the Sole Administrator of working to dismantle the existing political structure in the state to pave the way for a new system that serves the political interests of Tinubu and the APC at the national level.
  
“What the Sole Administrator of Rivers is doing is to demolish the political structure of the state and lay the foundation of a new system that will favour the ruling party,” he said.The activist questioned why appointees serving the people of Rivers were being targeted simply because of political disagreements with the elected governor.
 
He also criticised Tinubu’s decision to impose a state of emergency and appoint a retired military officer as sole administrator, arguing that peace had not broken down at the time of the intervention.

CISLAC warned against moves that could undermine democratic governance, stressing that Nigeria must not slide into a one-party state if it is serious about growth.

ACCORDING to Akande, Tinubu would have swiftly approached the Supreme Court, if the President had suspended him when he was Lagos State governor between May 1999 and May 2007.
 
Tinubu, who was in the opposition during his tenure as Lagos governor, was recorded to have challenged the seizure of local council funds by then President Olusegun Obasanjo’s government. He said Fubara should not have waited for seven governors of his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), to institute a suit before the Supreme Court challenging his six-month suspension.  Fubara lacked courage, he asserted, adding that it is illegal for an elected president to suspend an elected governor of a state in the way it was done.
 
“The first thing Fubara ought to do, if he knew what he was doing, was to go to court, and to tell his people that what happened in Rivers is against the law; but he couldn’t find the courage.
 
“How can I be a governor and the President who was also elected is asking me to go away? Of course, I will go away to avoid trouble, but I will go to the courts. That is how we can build democracy. It is not about people in Agbada (flowing gown),” he added.

THE Presidency accused Obasanjo of hypocrisy and a poor democratic legacy. Special Assistant to the President on Social Media, Dada Olusegun, took a retrospective look at Obasanjo’s tenure, highlighting a series of alleged undemocratic actions carried out under his watch between 1999 and 2007.
 
“Obasanjo is trying every trick possible to whitewash his bad democratic records by attempting to exonerate himself from how Nigeria’s democracy has fared,” Olusegun posted in his verified X handle