A popular Nigeria musician, Dr Alban Unoma Nwapa, has faulted the decision of President Bola Tinubu to declare a state of emergency in Rivers State.
Nwapa said Tinubu should have called the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Nyesom Wike to order, rather than declaring a state of emergency.
The political crisis in Rivers State had led to Tinubu declaring a state of emergency and suspending Governor Sim Fubara for six months.
Tinubu also suspended the Rivers State deputy governor and all members of the state House of Assembly.
His action was an offshoot of the crisis between Wike and Fubara.
The crisis led to the emergence of parallel Assembly with 27 members under the leadership of Martins Amaewhule initially claiming to have defected from the Peoples Democratic Party to the All Progressives Congress.
But, the Supreme Court ordered their reinstatement and Fubara to represent the 2025 budget.
Following the ruling, Fubara attempted to represent the budget but was prevented from accessing the complex by Amaewhule’s Assembly.
Reacting to the situation, the superstar, who dominated the airwaves with his unique brand of music in the late 90s through to the 2000s, lamented that Tinubu lacked the constitutional powers to suspend Fubara and his deputy.
Addressing journalists in Abuja, Alban said: “And to think that this man, Fubara, was democratically elected by the people while the other person is just a minister, no electoral value in his own state of around 2 million eligible voters or more!
“And the annoying part is that he has not been made to also share part of the punishment being meted out to Fubara.
“In fact, nobody has mentioned his name. Supreme Court didn’t mention his name, the Senate didn’t mention his name, the President didn’t mention his name, nobody mentioned his name! It is really sad.
“Oh, my answer to that is simple, the President should’ve called Wike to order rather than declare a State of Emergency on Rivers.
“Calling Wike to order would’ve been the sensible thing to do because he is the reason we got into this whole mess in the first place! Slamming state of Emergency on Rivers has totally decimated the democratic structure of the state. It has ridiculed the entire democratic setting.
“You suspended both the governor and his deputy, even when you do not have the constitutional power to do so.
“The State House of Assembly will cease to function for the next six months as well? Come on, this is absurd. Let’s not even begin to talk about how wasteful it is to impose state of Emergency on the state.
“Or, are they not going to pay the new Administrator? Will he not have his own retinue of staff and security detail?
“The almost 10,000 soldiers that have been deployed to Rivers on Special Duties will be paid heavily as well. There is a whole lot of financial implications involved, and all at whose expense?
“Tax payers’ money of course! So, it’s much cheaper to call Wike to order than taking this illogical decision of State of Emergency. But let’s even put the cost implication aside, the heavy damage it has done to the democratic set up of Rivers state is what is painful. It is annoying. It will take them quite some time to recover from this set back.”
On what Tinubu’s action portend for Nigeria’s democracy, Alban said: “Its like setting a bad precedent because what it means now is that all the other governors too should expect that anything can happen to them anytime.
“One morning, the President can just wake up and decide he no longer likes the face of a particular governor and then suspend him from office! Is that the kind of country we’re in now?
“And this National Assembly na wa! This voice voting, it’s crazy! Yes, I know they do a lot of crazy things but this one shook me. It shook me.
“We know they do a lot of unthinkable things, we know, but this voice vote to determine 2/3rd is daylight robbery.
“It shocked me and surprised me that they have the audacity to do this. A state that boasts of millions of eligible voters yet they did this type of thing?
“And then they didn’t even care if there were any consequences to what they were doing. The voice voting is the part I don’t understand, how do you determine 2/3rd by voice voting? This is madness.”
