Malemi is a constitutional authority in Nigeria. To him, rule of law means government based on civil laws or laws which are reasonably justifiable in a democratic society and the exclusion of arbitrary laws or arbitrary exercise of powers by government. It is rule of right and not rule of might. He opined that the opposite of rule of law is rule by force, arbitrariness, despotism, dictatorship, tyranny and ultimately anarchy and chaos.
No one can put it better with regards to what is going on in Rivers State. There’s total breakdown of rule of law in Rivers. Recall that on 18th March, 2025, Tinubu declared a purported state of emergency which was predicated on an apprehension of tension in Rivers State that existed only in the figment of his security reports. He removed Governor Siminalayi Fubara and the elected members of the Rivers State House of Assembly from their offices for six months and replaced them with a Sole Administrator, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (Rtd), a military officer.
For the avoidance of doubt, everyone in Rivers State was going about his/her normal duties without let or hindrance. There were no attacks on families or property of citizens. There was no breakdown of law and order. There were no inter-cult wars. Nigeria was not at war or in danger of any invasion from a foreign country. There was no natural disaster that affected Rivers State and which required extraordinary measures to solve, and the Federation was not under any immediate threat of collapse from any attack, yet Tinubu declared a purported state of emergency in Rivers State. Indeed the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) led by its President, Afam Osigwe, SAN, made it clear that none of the conditions stated in Section 305(3)(a-f) had occurred to warrant the President declaring a state of emergency in Rivers State. Hear the NBA: “The NBA firmly asserts that the situation in Rivers State, though politically tense, does not meet the constitutional threshold for the removal of elected officials.”
It is in this regard that the purported declaration of a state of emergency by Tinubu was actually a declaration of martial law, not strictly speaking, a declaration of state of emergency. It’s only a declaration of martial law that empowers a government to remove democratically elected government and install a sole administrator. State of emergency declaration does not empower an elected president to suspend any provision of the law to achieve any intended result. Tinubu, in order to illegally remove the Governor, Deputy Governor and Members of the House of Assembly from office, suspended Sections 1, 110, 117, 179, 180, 188, 189 etc of the 1999 Constitution as amended to achieve that. This is akin to a military coup which normally suspends portions of the Constitution in order to sack the democratically elected government of Nigeria. This is why the NBA rightly described the proclamation by Tinubu as “an unconstitutional usurpation of power and a fundamental breach of Nigeria’s federal structure.” Nothing in Section 305 grants the President the power to suspend some provisions of the Constitution in order to proclaim the state of emergency.
For the avoidance of doubt, worse security breaches have happened in other states without a declaration of state of emergency. Sixteen persons were killed in Edo State while travelling from Rivers State to Kano. It was believed that the vigilantes who killed them acted because of the incessant murdering of their own people by suspected killer herdsmen, kidnappers, and terrorists. Catching them with guns triggered suspicions that they may be part of the terrorist gangs bedevilling their communities leading to the unfortunate cross exchange of hostilities that resulted in the unfortunate killing of those that lost their lives. Tinubu’s security reports do not catch such deadly security challenges.
Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno State recently cried out that Boko Haram’s resurgence is real. Nigerians wake up regularly to learn that many soldiers and civilians, particularly farmers, are massacred in Borno State. Tinubu’s security report do not capture that for declaration of state of emergency. In Benue State, communities have come under constant attacks from terrorists and killer herdsmen that resulted in deaths and displacement of many natives. Yet Tinubu’s incompetent security report is not bringing solution and state of emergency on those states.
The catastrophic and senseless mass killings of more than 100 locals in Plateau State is the latest in the scandalous display of incompetence in the management of security matters in Nigeria. The first Christmas that Tinubu celebrated was on the blood of more than 200 Plateau State indigenes, who were killed that year. As this latest spilling of Plateau blood is raging, the President is enjoying a private official working visit to Paris, according to his truth-challenged media aides. Who knows whether the security report has informed him that the occurrences in Plateau is nothing compared to what happened in Rivers, where no life or property whatsoever was lost.
In Ebonyi State, the story is not different as communal clashes between communities are raging. Throughout Nigeria, kidnapping is still a booming trade that leads to the abduction of many people from every part of Nigeria. Even Tinubu’s National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, was seen begging his people to resist the temptation of paying ransom to the kidnappers to obtain the release of their abducted ones. He admitted that the temptation for someone to become desperate and pay ransom is high when a beloved one is abducted, but cautioned that paying ransom merely empowers the kidnappers to kidnap more people.
So throughout Nigeria, security is terrible. Can the National Security Adviser, or whoever is churning out those uninformed and desperate politically motivated security reports that advised Tinubu to declare state of emergency in Rivers to also advise to replicate his solution to security problems in Nigeria which he applied in Rivers State. Tinubu should just declare a state of emergency throughout Nigeria for six months and invite the military to take over the presidency to restore security in Nigeria so he can have the much needed rest in France for six months. If this solution is not viable in Nigeria, then Tinubu must revoke his illegal and unconstitutional state of emergency in Rivers State now or the National Assembly should do it now in accordance with section 305(6)(a)(d) of the 1999 Constitution as amended.
The National Assembly should understand that if they allow this illegal state of emergency to stand, a President can wake up tomorrow and sack them under a state of emergency. This was what President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea wanted to do to solve a political logjam with the National Assembly. The National Assembly acted swiftly and impeached the President on 14th December, 2024, and the Constitutional Court removed him on 4 April 2025. The court said the President cannot solve a political logjam through the declaration of martial law. Political problems must be settled politically. Tinubu has already started encroaching on the power of the National Assembly by usurping their powers to make law for Rivers State. The National Assembly had to fight to take back the power. What happened in Rivers State was a political logjam and not a security problem and Tinubu had no business declaring a state of emergency. The state of emergency was a political power grab by President Tinubu to push out the opposition party and get a firm hold on the rich Rivers State.
It’s obvious that the Tinubu-appointed Sole Administrator, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas, has already started acting out Tinubu’s script. On Monday, April 7, 2025, he announced the appointment of administrators for the 23 local government areas in the state. The appointments came despite a pending suit in a Federal High Court in Port Harcourt, seeking to restrain the state administrator from making the appointment pending the determination of the matter before it. The Ibas-led state government has also announced a new board for the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC). He has also approved the reconstitution of some boards of agencies, commissions, and parastatals, earlier suspended. All appointments took effect from Monday, the 7th of April 2025.
The Supreme Court has outlawed the governance of local government councils through unelected people. Tinubu’s Attorney General, Lateef Fagbemi, secured this judgement from the apex court. It is shameful that the same Tinubu is trying to govern Rivers State LG councils through sole administrators. Ibas is spending Rivers State money without any appropriation by any legislature. Shame on the National Assembly for allowing this kind of lawlessness. Ibas has purportedly appointed members of RSIEC, to conduct elections? Without the approval of the legislature? A military man organising elections in a democracy? And Rivers people are just standing by and allowing him? Shame on all of us! The only thing evil needs to fester is for good men to keep quiet. Rivers is going bad not because of the violence of the bad ones, but because of the silence of the good ones.
Every step the Sole Administrator has taken so far is illegal, just as his appointment is illegal. Rule of force and might are in full force in Rivers State. Whoever is ever wishing to be governed by a military regime should have a test of it in Rivers State. Nigeria must vow never again to be governed by military regime or a civilian dictator who is governing with military martial law and tactic while masquerading to be a democratic president. Rule of right must be preferred to rule of might.