A Port Harcourt-based legal practitioner, Princewill Dike, has commended President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for declaring a state of emergency in Rivers State, stating that the decision was necessary to avert a looming crisis and bloodshed.
Dike, speaking on Wednesday, defended the president’s action, citing Section 305 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), which grants the government the power to declare emergency rule in any part of the country to protect lives and property. He further referenced Section 14, subsection 2 of the Constitution, which underscores the government’s primary responsibility for security and public welfare.
According to Dike, the security situation in Rivers State had deteriorated due to the ongoing political crisis surrounding the attempted removal of Governor Siminalayi Fubara by the House of Assembly. He noted that tensions were heightened as individuals and groups from a particular ethnic background made threats against non-indigenes and federal assets in the state.
“The threats posed a serious danger, not just to Rivers but to the entire nation,” Dike stated. “These actions could have escalated into wider instability, with spillover effects on neighboring states.”
The lawyer expressed concern that despite the growing tension, Governor Fubara failed to condemn these threats or direct security agencies to apprehend those inciting violence. He also pointed to an instance where the governor, after a Supreme Court judgment, assured youths that he would give them directives at the right time.
Dike further argued that the President’s decision was a preventive measure against lawlessness, comparing it to previous emergency declarations in Nigeria. He recalled that former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan took similar steps in Plateau, Ekiti, Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe states between 2004 and 2015.
“Mr. President acted proactively to prevent a total breakdown of law and order in Rivers State,” Dike asserted. “He did not sit back like Emperor Nero, who fiddled while Rome burned.”
The lawyer dismissed criticisms that the emergency rule was politically motivated or targeted at a particular ethnic group, stating that the move was purely in the interest of national security.
As political tensions persist in Rivers State, the declaration of emergency rule remains a subject of national debate, with many awaiting further actions from both the federal government and stakeholders in the state.
