Captain Tunji Shelle is a former chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos State. In this interview, he speaks on the state of emergency in Rivers State and the suspension of elected officials of the state, among other issues. ANAYO EZUGWU writes
President Bola Tinubu during his declaration emergency rule in Rivers State, said for the next six months, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) will be making decisions for Rivers State. What is your take on that?
That’s an aberration. The Federal Executive Council is not registered in the constitution to make laws for any state. So, it is not acceptable, it cannot hold, and it cannot stand any valid judgement.
I think, rather, the president is taking everybody for granted because for him to even have appointed a sole administrator, he should also have gone through the National Assembly first, and he needed the approval of the top majority to be able to go through that. The sacking of the governor is very unfortunate and I ask what has Siminalayi Fubara done to warrant all these?
The Supreme Court said he should represent the budget; he made efforts to represent the budget but the legislators didn’t allow it to happen. They said he should sack the local government area chairmen, he did that and asked the chairmen to hand over to the most senior person in the local government.
What’s wrong with that? I thought all the president needed to have done was to call Nyesom Wike to order. That should be the only thing that would have happened. He should also have allowed the legislature and the executive to work together.
I’m sure the executive is ready to work with the legislature in River State. So, he should have called them and ensure they worked together instead of undermining the constitution which he swore to protect. Let Wike take his job at the Federal Capital Territory seriously.
That’s what everybody is expecting from Mr. President to direct him to do, not to come and impose a retired military officer to be the sole administrator in the state. That is not acceptable. It’s an aberration. It’s not in the constitution.
Some people have alleged that the main intention of declaring the emergency rule was simply to sack the governor. To them, the president could have declared an emergency in Rivers without suspend elected officials. Do you share the sentiment?
Well, the legislature in River State was put there to sack the governor and the governor saw it ahead of time. He saw it coming and he made efforts to prevent it.
That’s why they are in a quagmire up to now. But what is wrong with these two bodies – executive and legislature – working together? Somebody was putting undue pressure on the legislature to impeach the governor.
And that one takes a long process. Suddenly, from nowhere, an administrator is appointed, suspending an elected governor, his deputy and the legislators, so that they can take control of River State politics and displace PDP.
If APC wants to win in Rivers State, let them go to the electorate and convince them to vote for them. That’s what it should be. It cannot win through the back door
That’s wrong. PDP has been in control of Rivers State for a long time. Before the PDP is displaced, let the APC go to the electorate and seek acceptance.
If they win, fine, but if they cannot win, it’s too bad for them. They have been winning in Lagos and no one is blinking an eye. Rivers State has been a PDP state.
The legislators won, the governor won, and it was a joint affair between the governor and the deputy, so there was no way they should have been removed. If any crisis happens, it has to be properly resolved.
It has to go through the constitutional provisions, not just by fiat. Suspension of the governor is not the solution to the problem because of its implications for the region.
The fear of some of us is that it should not get to the stage that oil production will be affected. If oil production is affected, it affects every Nigerian, not just Rivers State people, not just Wike or Fubara. So, this is what we should prevent from happening.
The government needs to realise that we need their cooperation, we need good leadership, we need good governance for the country to move forward.
If APC wants to win in Rivers State, let them go to the electorate and convince them to vote for them. That’s what it should be. It cannot win through the back door.
What is the plan of the PDP going forward? It has been reported that the governors of the party are planning to go to court; is that the right step to take?
Going to court is the right thing to do, so the declaration by the president would be challenged in the court of law, so that what Tinubu has done will not be a precedent.
People are saying that former President Olusegun Obasanjo did it and nothing happened and I think it was because those affected then didn’t go to court.
At that time, it was established that it was the wrong thing to do. That’s why ex-President Jonathan was unable to do the same thing, when he declared emergency rule in Yobe, Adamawa and Borno states.
Even then, the integrity of the country was threatened by Boko Haram, and the governors were not sacked; the legislature was also not sacked. Jonathan, only brought in the military to take care of the security situation. We should follow the rule of law.
We should follow the constitution in whatever we do. Nobody has absolute power to man handle the citizens; it should be a symbiotic system where everything works.
Some Nigerians have said what the president did in Rivers State is an impeachable offence; do you think the National Assembly has what it takes to even question the decisions of the president?
To me, no one is even talking about removing the president or something like that but he should do the right thing, so that everything works smoothly. Nobody is asking for his sack, but he should do the proper thing. He shouldn’t take everybody for granted. He shouldn’t take the citizenry for granted.
Everybody should work in harmony. Rivers State should be allowed to be as a state. And we should let Wike face his job as a minister. To me, let Fubara face his job and let Wike face his job, and there will be no more problems in Rivers State. The struggle for power in Rivers State is unnecessary and it has started crippling the economy of the state.
The worst of it now is the state of emergency, and I can tell you, the citizens will be worse off. They are talking of structures; which structure when it was going to cause a fight? The minister is in the Federal Capital Territory, fighting for structure in Rivers State and this is an aberration. It’s wrong. It’s immoral.
The minister should be called to order. He should be checked. Rather than suspending the governor, which is oppression and intimidation, Tinubu should have intervened in another way to resolve the issue. The governor should not have been removed.
People equally accused the president of playing a card because, in his speech, leading to the suspension of the governor and others, there was no mention of Wike. Do you think that was the case?
Tinubu and Wike have a common agenda of taking over Rivers State come 2027. That’s why their working relationship is like that. But they shouldn’t do that to the detriment of the running of the affairs of the state.
That’s where we have problems. If they want to win Rivers, let them go through the electorate, let them go through the normal process of convincing the electorate. Let them go through the normal democratic process.
This one they are doing is not democratic and that is why everybody continues to say let them call Wike to order. Whether they have an agenda or not, it should not affect the running of the present government in Rivers State.
Away from Rivers State, the gubernatorial candidate of your party in Lagos, Jandor, has returned to APC. How did PDP receive the news and do you think it can lead to infractions in the party?
Jandor is an infraction himself because he didn’t work for the party. He went through a process to join the party. A leader in the party, Chief Bode George, introduced him to the party.
He carried him up to the G5 level. The G5 governors as well as the former governor of Delta State, who eventually became the running mate of Atiku, Ifeanyi Okowa, embraced him. They all came to Lagos. We were joyful.
We received him just because we felt all these governors putting resources together to support him, we will have enough resources for the governorship election in Lagos. We spent a lot of it on election, and if you don’t have the means, you cannot win election.
But unfortunately, he betrayed them and they all disowned him. He assumed a larger-thanlife image; how could that be? How can Jandor be Chief Bode George’s leader? How can he be my leader? How can he be all the leaders’ leaders?
He came here with nothing, and he has gone away with nothing. Let him go back to where he belongs. We don’t need him. He didn’t bring anybody substantial and did not add value to the party. Now that he has left, we will rebuild our party and continue.
Don’t you feel that PDP is not doing enough as the main opposition party, and that is exactly why the Federal Government seems to be taking the party for granted?
It’s not because the PDP is not ready to do its best, but because the government has an overbearing attitude towards politicians and institutions.
They have the judiciary. If you go to court against them, they waste your time and at the end of the day, there won’t be a justice. So, that’s why PDP is being careful.
We don’t need him. He didn’t bring anybody substantial and did not add value to the party. Now that he has left, we will rebuild our party and continue
Some of us felt Wike should have been expelled. We felt Samuel Anyanwu should have been expelled long ago. We felt some other dissidents should have been expelled but PDP is being careful, so that they don’t go to court and start wasting the time of the party in the law court. That’s why the party maintain some restraint.
I think that even Wike would have a change of heart but since he has no change of mind, he is working for the president. He is even saying openly that he will campaign for the president in 2027.
Then he should move to the APC. That one is honourable enough. Some people have defected from PDP before, went to APC and they went honourably.
Let Wike go to APC honourably. Not that he will be coming back with stubbornness, distracting and disobeying the rules and regulations, and the constitution of the party. It’s not allowed. I’m sure the PDP is ready to ask him to go wherever he wants to go instead of coming here and holding us to ransom.
As a stakeholder in Lagos, how do you look at the issue that happened at the Lagos State House of Assembly, where two people were claiming speakership? Do you think that the president handled that matter very well or should he have meted the Rivers State treatment?
Well, all these issues should be an internal problem that should be ironed out democratically and maturely. The people who were to handle the case in Lagos State decided not to do so.
They have a Governance Advisory Council (GAC), which is not working up to its expectations. That’s why they had what they had in the Lagos Assembly.
It’s their internal problem. Whatever they wanted to do, they let them do it among themselves. They said they have resolved it now, but yet they are in court. So, that is their case because it’s APC to APC, they are not threatening to remove the legislature.
They are not threatening to remove the deputy governor. These are things that could be handled administratively, which they have done. Though it’s very embarrassing one has gone to court without waiting for the court to take the decision.
They made a one-on-one arrangement and agreed that Mudashiru Obasa should come back. He has come back, yet he has been in court. What manner of ridicule is that? It’s a very ridiculous approach to solving problems. So, that’s their problem. I don’t want to dwell too far into it. It’s embarrassing.
It’s not effective for a speaker to be removed, only for him to come back, open the office and enter. They were called to a meeting and asked him to go back. Well, that’s disturbing enough. That’s ridiculous enough. And that’s embarrassing enough. The state cannot be run in that way
How can you rate the president’s performance as the ruling party has boasted that Tinubu would be re-elected in 2027 on account of his achievements?
Well, I wouldn’t know anything about achievement. There’s a lot of things not being done. The government is not doing its work. They are gambling with the lives of the people. There is still hunger in the land.
There is still insecurity in the land. There is joblessness in the land. So many people are out of school. Some cannot afford to feed. This should be the main concern of the government. Look at the cost of accommodation. Look at the exchange rate. Everything is on the high side. People are not happy.
People are angry. So, the government should be sensitive. It should be sensitive to the plight of the people. All these things are not being done. The health sector is not doing enough. The educational sector has stepped back. The economy is on the downside.
Added to these are crises here and there. The crisis in Rivers State is enough to crumble the economy. So, the government should be very careful. They should be sensitive enough to know that anything that will affect oil production will affect the economy of the country.
That should be the concern of the Federal Government, not just interfering with what happens in Lagos State or Rivers State. Rivers State can take care of itself. Also, Lagos State can take care of itself as long as the people are elected to serve. If they are not doing well, they will be thrown out in the next election.
