In an effort to restore democratic governance in Rivers State and return Governor Siminalayi Fubara from suspension, a group of lawyers organized under the aegis of Lawyers in Defence of Democracy have started a protest in Abuja.
Governor Fubara and the Rivers State House of Assembly have been suspended, and the organization has called on the US and the world community to put pressure on President Bola Tinubu to reverse his decision.
The Proclamation of a State of Emergency in Rivers State by President Tinubu “is unconstitutional and undermines democracy,” according to Barr. Uchechukwu Udeh, Country Director, Lawyers in Defence of Democracy.
The organization requested the US president to step in and put pressure on the Nigerian government to reinstate democratic governance in Rivers State in a letter addressed to President Donald Trump.
The state legislature and Governor Fubara’s suspension, they contended, is a flagrant attempt to subvert constitutional order.
According to the group, proper process was not followed and President Tinubu’s action was obviously hurried.
The attorneys also denounced the National Assembly as an anomaly in democracy for approving the President’s choice.
The group therefore called on President Tinubu to change his mind and permit Governor Fubara to carry on serving as the state’s lawfully elected governor.
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We have found ourselves at a crossroads, a serious moment of reckoning where constitutional order is being tested most shamelessly in an era where democracy is meant to reign supreme and provide benefits to the masses.
Under the pretext of emergency rule, the President of Nigeria, who vowed to protect the country’s Constitution, has taken a very unusual and illegal step by suspending a democratically elected governor, deputy governor, and whole State House of Assembly.
Which emergency? The letter claimed that Rivers people and Nigerians did not perceive or experience any such emergency.
No statute, constitutional provision, or established convention grants the president the authority to unilaterally disband the institutions of an elected state government, as stated in our legal texts and as we maintain.
We do not currently live under a military dictatorship, yet this could only have occurred in the era of military juntas.
The issues should have been resolved by the president letting the different state organs handle it. It is unworthy that Osun State’s local government administration crisis didn’t result in a state of emergency proclamation until lately.
Currently, the nation is run as a constitutional democracy with a presidential power structure.
President Tinubu shouldn’t have made the choice, according to the Lawyers in Defence of Democracy, because democracy is a learning process and the judiciary has proven its ability to settle disputes. END.
