By NNAMDI Obiaraeri
On a democratic track or paradigm, Rivers State of Nigeria is presently on a reverse state characterised by anomie and infamy. By extension and deductive reasoning or logic, Nigeria is on reverse too. You cannot have a whole without a part. Things are not the way they should be in Rivers State. Nigerians cannot be celebrating that a part of their country is driving or moving backwards. Although many men and women of enlightened consciences saw it coming, the dramatis personae, gladiators were pig headed, stubborn, stiff-necked, uncompromising and mulish, if you like. The combatants were simply blinded by ego, greed and avarice, self-aggrandizement and impunity. They were torn between the theories that posit the least you owe a benefactor is gratitude and the one that says that “if you make a king, you bow”. They never reckoned that both king and kingmaker are never bigger than the kingdom. The chasm or rift was not about the good people of Rivers State of Nigeria or delivering dividends of democracy to the people. According to an Igbo parable, the toad says that it does not know how loud it will croak lest water will suffocate it. Anyone who is quick to pass judgement on political disputes clothed as constitutional or legal brouhaha risks having his fingers burnt. Enough said!
A popular parable in the riverine areas posits that a river goddess or deity that is asking for seven eggs will not be satisfied even if you give it eight eggs. It is usually not satiated or assuaged- it must wreck havoc on its adherents. That is what happened and is happening in Rivers State. The chaotic state of affairs in Rivers State was avoidable until things and events were put on overdrive. No matter how anyone looks at it, none of the warring sides in the imbroglio is blameless or innocent. No one should play the pity card either. Not even those who chose to be unconcerned are left out. There are times that silence is not golden. What is playing out in Rivers State epitomises the parable “When two elephants fight, the grass will suffer.” This time, not only grasses are suffering. Sacred institutions that symbolise democracy have been pilloried and gibbetted. Now, the average Rivers State citizen is bearing the brunt of what can be figuratively likened to crisis caused by “a band of thieves who did not know how to share their loot quietly”. In power politics, the problem is not usually with conspiring to grab power. The challenge has always been how to equitably share the spoils of office in the roguish business called power politics.
No one can honestly appraise the present impasse without conceding that as bad as the situation is, the three arms of government in Rivers State [legislature, executive and judiciary] have all been desecrated. At the federal level, these three arms of government are not spared from the combined actions, inactions, omissions, commissions intrigues and conspiracies that led to the reverse state of affairs in Rivers State. In this Rivers State confusion and national embarrassment, the national constitution, reputed to be the grundnorm, fons et origo, the law that validates all laws has been brazenly trampled and flagrantly violated by all the warring sides.
The latest constitutional logjam is the State of Emergency imposed by the President in Rivers State. In an unprecedented manner, apart from the President imposing a State of Emergency in Rivers State, he also announced the suspension of the Governor, Deputy Governor and all elected members of the State House of Assembly. Those familiar with Military rule will agree that this is what a typical military regime could do. After every military coup, the military junta will effortlessly suspend the legislature and consolidate all executive and legislative powers on the Military Head of State or Military Administrator/Governor. The only difference is that a Sole Administrator was appointed to hold the reigns of executive and legislative powers in Rivers State for six months in the first instance. Only the judiciary was spared although (considering the plethora of conflicting judgments/orders they issued) the judiciary in Rivers State was not free from the ruckus that engulfed both the executive and legislative arms of Rivers State government. Truth be told, the judiciary within and outside Rivers State played a prominent role in fanning the embers of disunity in that oil rich State.
Unlike a military ouster, the President is mandated to seek the approval of the National Assembly on that excursion called Declaration of Emergency under section 305 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as amended. Before the National Assembly could sit to consider the constitutionality and procedural correctness of the State of Emergency declared by the President in Rivers State, the Nigerian Bar Association leading some other groups and outspoken persons, including a few turncoat opposition elements, argued vehemently that the imposition of Emergency Rule and particularly the suspension of elected Governor/Deputy Governor and members of the House of Assembly was unconstitutional. They enjoined the National Assembly to reverse the President’s order of State of Emergency. Some other groups including the Attorney General of the Federation who is the Chief Law Officer of the Federation justified the development. The National Assembly paid no heed to calls for them to overturn the State of Emergency. By voice vote, the National Assembly, in its respective Senate and House of Representatives Chambers, approved the State of Emergency imposed by the President in Rivers State including the suspension of the elected Governor, Deputy Governor and members of the Rivers State House of Assembly.
Presently, the extent, implications, ramifications and limitations of the power of President to impose a state of emergency as was done in Rivers State has dominated legal and political discourses. The propriety of unilaterally suspending elected members of the executive and legislature is in issue. The propriety of appointing a Sole Administrator in a democracy is in focus. The propriety of use of voice vote by the National Assembly in passing the motion in support of the declaration of State of Emergency is not left out too.
What is safe to say at this juncture is that unless and until a Court of competent jurisdiction places final interpretation on the upper and lower limits of powers exercisable by the President under section 305 of the Constitution as amended, and whether the National Assembly is required to resort to voice vote, opinions (legal, social and political) will continue to be convoluted and controversial. Anyone who contends otherwise is on his or her own. Plurality of opinions is the hallmark of democracy.
What is beyond doubt however is that the State of Emergency has taken off in Rivers State. Whether there will be legal challenges and what their outcomes will be is yet to be seen.
For now, the mess or jumble in Rivers State presents both moral, constitutional and legal challenges. Indubitably, it signposts failure of leadership and moral bareness that has afflicted the polity. The moral lessons before, from and up to the events leading to the declaration of state of emergency in Rivers State remains that there is no substitute for peace. Blessed are the peacemakers.
A new normal is possible!
Prof Obiaraeri, N. O.
