The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has called on President Bola Tinubu to end the state of emergency he imposed in Rivers State as he lacks constitutional power to suspend an elected governor.
ADC in a statement on Friday by interim National Publicity Secretary Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, also called on Vice President Kashim Shettima, “to stand by his forthright and courageous statement, which affirms that the president has no constitutional power to remove an elected councilor, not to talk of a sitting governor.”
The party warned that the provisions of the Nigeria Constitution “must not be lost in the fog of political correctness that is currently emanating from Aso Rock.
“Truth does not respect political correctness, because what is wrong is wrong.”
According to the statement what made the removal of an elected governor wrong and unconstitutional under President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration in the case of Borno State, is the same that makes it wrong and unconstitutional under President Tinubu in the case of Rivers State.
“The only thing that has changed is that while one president held the constitution as sacrosanct and inviolable, another feels it could be manipulated to suit narrow political interests,” ADC stated.
The party said there is a precedent, because, as Vice President Shettima recounted, both the then Speaker of the House of Representatives Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, which was reaffirmed by the Attorney General at the time, Mohammed Bello Adoke, told Jonathan that the president of Nigeria does not have the power under the constitution to remove an elected governor from office.
It regretted that unlike Jonathan, “who has been widely acclaimed as a respecter of the law, President Tinubu chose to disregard the very laws he swore to uphold and tread the path of unconstitutionality in Rivers State.”
ADC maintained that the suspension of a duly elected governor is not just unconstitutional, but authoritarian, and a dangerous precedent if allowed to persist even for a single more day.
It described the suspension of democratic structures in Rivers State as executive overreach, which it said, was fueled by narrow political interests.
This, it added, poses a grave threat to Nigeria’s democracy and federalism.
“Nigeria is not a monarchy,” ADC stated, adding, “The powers of the president are not absolute. They are bounded by law, tempered by precedent, and subject to public accountability.
“For avoidance of doubts, the breakdown of law and order that the presidency has deployed as pretext to overthrow democratic order in Rivers State is nothing compared with the rampaging scourge of Boko Haram that abducted more than 200 school girls in Chibok, Borno state, slaughtered school boys in Buni Yadi, Yobe State and challenged the very sovereignty of Nigeria.
“Yet, in declaring a state of emergency in the affected states under these dire circumstances, President Jonathan recognised the limits of his constitutional powers and he respected it.
“This was the truth that the Vice President reminded us of at the book launch of former Attorney General, Mohammed Bello Adoke on Thursday. It was not faux pas, it was not Freudian slip, it was the truth anchored on the facts of history.
“In this regard, the ADC therefore calls on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to immediately restore democratic governance in Rivers State, cease all illegal interference in the affairs of the state, and halt the unconstitutional actions that have upended democratic rule in that state.
“We further demand that the president tenders an unreserved apology to the Nigerian people for this abuse of power and the blatant disregard for constitutional order that has played out under his watch.
“The ADC will continue to stand with the Nigerian people in defence of democracy, justice, and constitutionalism.”
