The declaration of an emergency rule in Rivers State does not only throttle the wheels of the nation’s surviving democracy but also an infraction of the law establishing Nigeria as a federating State.
By the virtues of the law under which a federal system is constitutionally governed, it is exclusively the responsibility of the government at the centre to provide security for federal infrastructures, not the component units.
In the Exclusive List as defined by such a political system, the national government is solely responsible for defence and apportioning blame on the state government for security breaches that led to the attack on federal infrastructure located in the State to a large extent, exposes the weakness of the federal government in securing her national assets.
The duly elected Rivers State governor, whose administration has been suspended in the name of Emergency Rule, shouldn’t be expected to draft security operatives to secure national assets. Rather, it is the constitutional function of the President as obtainable in a federal presidential system.
These steps taken by the government in the heat of the ongoing political crisis in Rivers leave one with the suspicion that some allies and enemies of the State are really up to sacrifice the peace of the general public to serve their selfish ends. A democracy that stifles opposition hardly stands the test of time, and Nigeria is grossly taken back to the era of fascism, where power is coercively wielded against the constitution and the interest of the people.
This is one of the darkest moments of the prevailing political standoff in Rivers State and going by the body language of the federal government, it invariably means Nigeria has finally lost her democratic values as a nation, thereby mocking our national anthem on the philosophy of justice and human rights. “A nation where no one is oppressed “, as recited, has lost its values and dignity.
There is no doubt that the decision of the federal government to suspend a democratically elected governor may trigger a renewal of hostilities in the coastal state with attendant effects on the nation’s economy. By my assessment, the current political crisis in the State doesn’t require such a strict measure of emergency rules considering the fragility of the region to violence as the economy will suffer huge setbacks in the face of sabotage to oil facilities. It is an attack on democratic processes to hastily oust a duly constituted government, citing irrelevant portions of the law on national security which remains an uninterrupted duty of the federal government to provide. I advise the government to quickly rescind this decision and find a better option for addressing the challenges than quickly resorting to usurping the power of the governor to please and serve the interests of an anointed gladiator who sees himself as the political deity that must be appeased before governance and other government-related activities can be enhanced.
Chief Emeka Kalu,
Director General, Global Initiatives For Good Governance