Reactions Trail Tinubu’s State of Emergency Declaration in Rivers

President Bola Tinubu’s declaration of a six-month state of emergency in Rivers State has sparked intense reactions, with opposition leaders, legal experts, and citizens condemning the move as unconstitutional and politically motivated.

Human rights lawyer Inibehe Effiong criticised the decision’s legality, stating that the 1999 Constitution does not grant the President the authority to suspend a sitting governor or members of a state House of Assembly.

President Tinubu has no constitutional authority or power to suspend the Governor of Rivers State and the members of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Effiong wrote on X.

Former Vice President and 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, also issued a statement, accusing Tinubu of orchestrating the crisis in Rivers State to justify federal intervention. He argued that the security breakdown, including Monday’s explosion on the Trans-Niger Pipeline, directly resulted from Tinubu’s failure to act before the situation deteriorated.

Tinubu cannot evade responsibility for the chaos his administration has either enabled or failed to prevent, Atiku said. It is an unforgivable failure that under Tinubu’s watch, the Niger Delta has been thrown back into an era of violent unrest and instability—undoing the hard-won peace secured by the late President Umaru Yar’Adua.

Atiku further described Tinubu’s decision to appoint Vice Admiral Ibokette Ibas (Rtd) as Administrator of Rivers State as a direct attack on democracy.

Punishing the people of Rivers State just to serve the political gamesmanship between the governor and Tinubu’s enablers in the federal government is nothing less than an assault on democracy and must be condemned in the strongest terms, he added.

Other reactions has also spilled on social media, with some Nigerians questioning why the President chose to remove an elected governor instead of addressing insecurity in other parts of the country.

Tinubu suspending Fubara as Governor is totally wild, the  police and security forces should have arrested the situation. There are whole LGs controlled by terrorists. Why have the Governors not been sacked there? A sad day, @Morris_Monye wrote.

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