Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has declared a state of emergency in oil-rich Rivers state and suspended its governor and lawmakers over a political crisis and vandalism to oil pipelines.
Rivers is one of Nigeria’s top oil-producing states contributing to the country's status as Africa’s largest oil producer.
The local political crisis has brewed for months between the state governor Siminalayi Fubara and state lawmakers.
This week, some lawmakers initiated an impeachment process against governor Fubara, accusing him of various illegalities regarding the presentation of the state budget and the composition of the legislative chamber.
Many of the legislators are backed by the state’s former governor Nyesom Wike, who is currently a powerful minister in Tinubu’s government.
Nigeria’s former navy chief to take charge
President Bola Tinubu suspended the governor and other elected officials, including the state lawmakers, for six months, in a national broadcast on Tuesday evening.
The Nigerian president criticised the governor for not “taking any action to curtail” fresh incidents of pipeline vandalism reported in the last 24 hours, including a blast that resulted in a fire on the Trans Niger Pipeline.
“With all these and many more, no good and responsible president will stand by and allow the grave situation to continue without taking remedial steps prescribed by the constitution to address the situation in the state,” Tinubu said.
Tinubu's state of emergency enables the federal government to make regulations to run the state and also allow authorities to easily deploy security forces to bring order if needed.
Nigeria’s former navy chief Vice Admiral Ibokette Ibas, who is retired, will become the administrator of Rivers state and the judiciary will continue to function, Tinubu said.
Military trucks were quickly deployed to the Rivers State Government House in the capital Port Harcourt following Tinubu’s announcement.
The fate of the ministers in the affected ministries is unclear.
The Nigerian Constitution allows emergency rule to maintain law and order in rare circumstances.
Not unprecedented
Prior to the emergency rule, Rivers state was under Nigeria’s main opposition party, PDP. The party described the move as ‘‘unconstitutional’’ and an attempt by Tinubu’s ruling APC party to ‘‘forcefully take over Rivers State’’.
The Nigerian Bar Association has also criticised the suspensions of the governor and other elected officials as illegal.
“A declaration of emergency does not automatically dissolve or suspend elected state governments,” Afam Osigwe, the association’s president, said in a statement.
This is not the first time a state of emergency was declared and state governor suspended by a Nigerian president since the country returned to democracy in 1999 after many years of military rule.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo took a similar move during intense ethnic and religious conflict in the central state of Plateau in 2004, and amid a political dispute in the southwestern state of Ekiti in 2006.
In 2013, President Goodluck Jonathan also declared an emergency rule in the northeastern states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe at the height of the Boko Haram insurgency. However, the state governors were not suspended at the time. In all the instances, the decisions were controversial.
