Senior Advocate and former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Chief Joseph Bodurin Daudu, has asserted that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had acted in line with the Constitution on the declaration of the state of emergency in Rivers State.
The main NBA body had disowned the development and condemned it as illegal and unconstitutional.
In line with the state of emergency, Rivers State Governor Siminalayi Fubara and the House of Assembly were suspended from functioning.
However, Daudu dismissed concerns about the legality of suspending the executive and legislative arms of government in a security challenged state
According to him, no Nigerian court had ever ruled such actions unconstitutional.
“Has any court in Nigeria declared the suspension of the executive and legislative arms of the state government under emergency rule as unconstitutional or illegal? I have my doubts,” Daudu argued.
While acknowledging past legal challenges, particularly in relation to Plateau State in 2004 and 2006, he clarified that those cases were decided on the issue of locus standi rather than the constitutionality of emergency rule itself.
Urging those opposed to the decision to challenge it in court, he maintained that “as things stand today, the person who can declare a state of emergency, i.e., the President, is the one who gets to decide how the subject state will be run.”
According to Daudu, a Governor, complicit in plunging a state into disorder, could not simultaneously be expected to restore order.
He said: “A Governor that has been found complicit in the events leading to the declaration of the state of emergency in his territory cannot at the same time be left to administer the state that he has plunged into chaos and near anarchy. One must give way for the other.
“Simply put, the declaration of a state of emergency means that the President takes over direct rule of the state through his agent, known as the Sole Administrator. It will therefore be incongruous and completely out of place for the President and the suspended Governor to rule the subject state at the same time.”
On the suspension of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Daudu clarified: “The House of Assembly of the state now stands suspended. They can no longer act as legislators. Only the National Assembly, pursuant to Section 11 of the Nigerian Constitution, can make laws for the peace, order, and good governance of such a state.”
Responding to comparisons with former President Goodluck Jonathan’s handling of emergency rule in 2014, Daudu dismissed claims that Fubara’s suspension was unprecedented.
He argued that Jonathan’s failure to remove governors in Adamawa, Yobe, and Borno states at the time was a matter of personal choice rather than constitutional restraint.
In a scathing remark, he suggested that Jonathan’s inaction may have contributed to the Boko Haram crisis spiralling out of control.
