Since President Bola Ahmed Tinubu unconstitutionally proclaimed a state of emergency in March, the anomaly it creates is increasingly manifesting. The dangerous irony of appointing a soldier\u2014Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (retired or not)\u2014is beginning to show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Sole Administrator has reportedly announced the\ndissolution of local government administration in the state. He is also said to\nhave suspended several boards and commissions in Rivers State, including the\nState\u2019s Electoral Commission, which he has reconstituted. Additionally, the\nSole Administrator is reported to have prepared a budget, which he intends to\nimplement\u2014without passage by the State House of Assembly, which was also\nsuspended by President Bola Tinubu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The actions of the Administrator raise constitutional\nquestions. Among them: Does the Sole Administrator have the powers to prepare a\nbudget or receive federal revenue allocations? Can he legally spend state\nfunds? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It has been argued clearly and repeatedly that Section\n305 does not confer on the President the power to suspend either the State\nHouse of Assembly or the Governor, as he has done. The Constitution lays down\nstrict conditions under which a State House of Assembly may be suspended. These\nare found in Section 11(4) of the Constitution. Section 11 only permits the\nNational Assembly to assume the legislative functions of a State House of\nAssembly when that Assembly is unable to perform its duties. Even then, the Constitution\nstipulates that these powers of the National Assembly are temporary and must\nlapse\u2014or be reversed\u2014when conditions normalize. It is therefore clear that the\nsection of the Constitution relied upon by the President\u2014Section 305<\/strong>\u2014does\nnot provide for the appointment of a Sole Administrator, such as Ibas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Observers are increasingly worried about the growing\nlist of constitutional breaches in Rivers, and the implications this may have\nfor Nigeria\u2019s democracy. Meanwhile, it remains unclear how\u2014or when\u2014these\nconstitutional abnormalities and flagrant violations of the country\u2019s grundnorm\nwill be resolved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What is clear, however, is the serious stain that the\ndeclaration of a state of emergency in Rivers State has placed on the Tinubu\nadministration\u2014and on its democratic credentials.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Since President Bola Ahmed Tinubu unconstitutionally proclaimed a state of emergency in March, the anomaly it creates is increasingly manifesting. The dangerous irony of appointing a soldier\u2014Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (retired or not)\u2014is beginning to show. The Sole Administrator has reportedly announced the dissolution of local government administration in the state. He is also said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3803,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3795"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3800,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3795\/revisions\/3800"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}