The Abuja School
The Abuja School of Social and Political Thought have invited you to this
urgent press conference because of the extreme importance and urgency of
reacting to the event that happened yesterday’s evening regarding the ongoing
crisis in the River State government. As you may know, or as you know, The
President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, last night, dissolved democratic
structures in Rivers State, including the governor, the deputy governor, and the
House of Assembly in the language of suspending them for six months.
The Abuja School feels compelled to react to this development because it holds
very extreme danger to democracy and good governance in Nigeria.
First, the facts are obvious. That since the 2023 Governorship Election of the
River State, there has been crisis between the executive and the legislature. This
crisis, as destabilising as it is, and as distracting as it is to good governance, has
not created a situation of breakdown of law and order and therefore, this
avoidable crisis and conflict between the executive and the legislature of the
River State is amenable to resolution by other political means, including
reconciliation, judicial determination, which the Supreme Court has done, and
arbitration. So, Abuja School stand with Mr. President in condemning this crisis
and conflict. But Abuja School takes a view that the solution Mr. President has
proposed is worse than the sickness itself. The Constitution authorises Mr.
President to declare a state of emergency in very limited circumstances.
Namely, when the Federation is at war, defined as a military combat or conflict
with the other country. Two, when a part of the country, the Federation or a part
of it, is there’s actual breakdown of law and order. Three, when the President
has a strong belief about the possibility of a breakdown of law and order or
takes the view that there is an immediate breakdown of law and order and four,
of course, when the governor and the House of Assembly, by a resolution, invite
Mr. President to declare a state of emergency in those parts. The whole of
section 305 of the Constitution, nowhere anticipates that a state of emergency
declaration would mean a dissolution of democratic structure, not anywhere at
all.
The history and the background of this section is important. In the 1960s, in the
First Republic, we didn’t have equivalent of this section, and we had an
emergency law that authorised the Prime Minister to dissolve government in the
region, and that was what led to the dissolution of the government of the
Western Nigeria. But since 1979 till date, the constitution has stipulated what a
state of emergency means. Furthermore, reading section 305, sub section 4, tell
clearly that in a state of emergency, the governor and the legislative house will
remain.
The idea of a state of emergency is for Mr. President to take extraordinary
measures to address the extent of the threats that is extraordinary and so,
President Jonathan invoked this section to address the challenges of insecurity
arising after the 2011 election, where some local governments in three states in
Nigeria were basically taken over by terrorists and other kinds of violent
criminals. In Jonathan’s declaration of state of emergency, it was very clear
what would happen, border was closed, limited movement around those areas,
but nowhere was the local government governance dissolved. In fact, there were
clamours that those local governments that were completely taken over by
terrorists should be dissolved, but President Jonathan wisely, and in correct
reading of the constitution, did not do any of this, because the measures taken
were enough to contain the crisis or the actual or imagined breakdown of law
and order.
It’s important also to note that the basis of the federation under the constitution
is that there are three levels of power, and the Supreme Court recently
reinforced this notion that each level of power cannot be abrogated, each level
of democratic governance can never be abrogated, that’s why the Supreme Court
said you cannot dissolve local government democracy. Similarly, section 1.3 of
the constitution makes clear Nigeria cannot be governed except in accordance
with democratic system under this law. So, in constitutional law, what Mr.
President has done violates clearly the constitution, it has abrogated a
democratic structure in the state, it has violated and denied the people of River
State the right to have the person they chose govern them. and instead imposed
a sole administrator. Sole administrator is what the Supreme Court frowned
at with local government case. If state governors cannot impose sole
administrators, the federal government cannot impose sole administrators.
Now, the history of this constitutional violation, an obvious one, it is President
Obasanjo’s proclamation of state of emergency in two states during his
administration. But it’s dangerous that constitutional violations become
precedent and repeated. What President Obasanjo did is an affront on
democracy, on constitutional governance.
The Presidents’ Speech
The president’s speech made three clear points.
- That there’s a crisis of conflict between the state executive, the governor,
and the house. - That he has arbitrated and tried to resolve it, giving the 10-point road
map. Three, that the Supreme Court of Nigeria has exhaustively dealt
with the crisis and settled it on a pronouncement that the governor should
present the budget to the house.
Now, what remained was, until yesterday, the convenience of the governor and
the house meeting to finally agree on this process. This is a political conflict
that does not in any way amount to breakdown of law and order, or war in
Nigeria or any part thereof. - The third point the president made very clear is that there has been recent
attack on pipeline. And he said, as commander-in-chief of the armed
forces, he had directed action.
So, everything that had to do with the possibility of attack on oil installation can
be managed by Mr. President’s exercise of commander-in-chief power, which he
claimed he has started doing. There was no conflict, no crisis, no breakdown,
requiring a sort of emergency of the nature, first, of even declaring war, two, of
abrogating democratic structure. So Mr. President’s speech shows clearly that he
is on top of the crisis.
He said, I have directed military response to protect infrastructure. Wherein is
the breakdown of law and order. Yesterday, I was in River State, Port-Harcourt.
I just flew in this morning. I went to deliver a lecture at a major event. There
was peaceful movement. There was nothing very scary about the state. So, this
is a contrived emergency to capture state power. That’s what it is. It’s dangerous
for the country, because it means that if there’s a conflict that has bad political
outcome for Mr. President or his party, he could dissolve government and
appoint a state administrator to gain political advantage.
Call for Action
The Abuja school calls on Mr. President to err is human, to correct is human.
The president has erred grievously and should rescind his proclamation in line
with the constitution. The Abuja school calls on the National Assembly to
exercise its power to disapprove Mr. President’s wrongful, unconstitutional, and
self-serving declaration of state of emergency.
We like the president to work together with the house. It’s good that they have
good working relationship, but this is one of those instances where the two
houses of the National Assembly have a responsibility to second-guess the
president. Three, if the National Assembly does not disapprove this declaration,
we call upon individual Nigerians from Rivers state to feel free and go to court
to challenge Mr. President’s wrongful exercise of power.
Now, let’s be very clear about this. This is not about Mr. President, this is not
about Fubara, this is not about the house. Again, many commentators are
wanting to thank the Nigerian opposition for being very upfront and courteous
in this, but people miss out the point.
The real issue is not dissolving the government. In fact, the most heinous crime
is dissolving the House of Assembly. The legislature is the heart and the essence
of democracy, that is the people’s legislative representatives. The president of
Nigeria cannot dissolve a state house of assembly. And that’s what the
constitution says. In any moment, there’s a big crisis in the state of assembly,
the National Assembly, which is a representative of the same Nigerian people,
can make law for the time being, until the impasse is resolved. There is no
provision in the constitution of Nigeria that entertains the possibility that the
governor elected by the people can be removed, except by impeachment by the
people’s representative for misconduct. The peoples’ representatives, the
legislators can be removed by recall There’s no other way to move the governor.
Again, all actions required, even in times of war, do not amount to truncation of
democracy. The constitution anticipates, even in times of war, that the president
will still leave the governorship, the democratic structure, and invoke war
powers to address the challenges. That’s why he’s a commandant-in-chief. For
example, Mr. President can impose a curfew. The president can restrict
movement into oil facilities.
Just as the president did yesterday, he has ordered that tanks be moved to Rivers
State. There are many things that the president has the powers to do if there is
actual breakdown of law and order. So, there are three points here:
- There’s no actual breakdown of law and order as the constitution
anticipates. - A political lockdown, political conflict is not breakdown of law and
order, because every political conflict has a mode of resolution within the
constitution. - And the Supreme Court decision has provided a template.
What remains now is for either the House to meet to receive the appropriation,
or even if they want to impeach the governor, it’s still a political solution. So,
what the president did is contrived, meaning he does not have any factual basis.
Two, he’s self-serving and over-reaching.
He has implanted his administrator over a state that is critical for the run-up to
- And therefore, he has taken away the power of the people to determine
their fate and gave it to a state administrator who is answerable to him. This is
the essence of tyranny, and I would be surprised and sorely displeased if
National Assembly does not nullify and cancel this false declaration of
emergency. Finally, it’s important, as we run up to 2027, we know that
politicians on the left and the right are all desperate for power. That’s the nature
of politics. Everyone’s going to look for what gives them advantage.
But it’s important that I just go on to caution that the steps towards anarchy and
breakdown of law and order is usually gradual. We saw it in 1967, during the
civil war. All Nigerians regret the Biafran War. But the war was not decreed
from heaven.
The war came out of series of desperate political action, starting from Western
Nigeria, starting from the coup, starting from failure to conduct a proper
leadership transition or secession, starting from different incompatibilities. I
would not want Nigeria to go through this again. Look at Guinea, look at Mali.
Outcomes of election, betrayal and distrust politicians who don’t want to live
with suboptimal results. Politicians want to have maximum outcome, that’s why
we’re in this trouble. Now, Mr. President, a political strategist has pushed the
conflict higher by taking advantage of the crisis to create a political outcome for
himself.
So, The Abuja School put on record that this should be marked in our history as
a very clear-eyed violation of constitutional law by Mr. President, because of
political advantage. There is no actual or possible breakdown of law and order
in River State as of today that justifies a state of emergency. And even if a state
of emergency is declared, it has nothing to do with abrogating the State House
of Assembly or dissolving, suspending the governor. Those actions are
fictitious, extreme, and do not logically flow from the facts of the crisis in River
State. We want to enjoin the National Assembly to do the right thing,
disapprove Mr. President’s declaration of emergency. We want to call upon the
government of River State, the governor and his team, to go to court and
challenge this, because Obasanjo did it wrongfully and it passed. President
Jonathan wisely did not do it. Jonathan declared emergency in three states,
closed borders, imposed curfew and restrictions, moved in the National Army
but did not suspend the governor or the house.
That’s what an emergency is. Emergency does not mean suspending democratic
structures. I want to put it on record as a lawyer, a constitutional lawyer, that
nothing in the constitution entertains at all that any state of emergency will
require dissolving government. The constitution is clear. Nigeria, or any part of
it, cannot, be governed except by a democratic means. You can declare an
emergency, in fact, be at war, still not dissolve democratic structures. That’s
why the law also provides that if Nigeria is at war, the president’s tenure can
extend. He doesn’t need to dissolve democracy to fight a war. And in reverse,
there is nothing close to an actual breakdown of law and order. What we have is
a political crisis that could be resolved, should be resolved through political
process. And the Supreme Court has provided a template so that the president
would have, the president could have perhaps said he’s going to take action to
force the government to comply because president has the power, has a function
of enforcing the constitution. If the president has said, based on what the
Supreme Court has said, I am going to direct that the governor and the house
should meet in the next two weeks to approve the appropriation bill, that will be
within the powers of the president to protect the constitution. But to use that
excuse to suspend the governor, the deputy, and the house is overreaching. It’s
not in compliance with the constitution and it’s thoroughly and completely
outside the limit of the powers of Mr. President under Section 5 of the
constitution.
Signed
Dr Sam Amadi
Director, Abuja School of Social and Political Thought