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Rivers crisis: Jonathan should watch it –Eminent Nigerians

May 19, 2013

Rivers crisis: Jonathan should watch it –Eminent Nigerians

Eminent Nigerians have called on President Goodluck Jonathan to be careful in handling the current crisis in Rivers State. Reacting to last week’s withdrawal of security details of the Rivers State House of Assembly Speaker, Otelemaba Dan Amachree, they urged the President to “watch it”.
Leading other eminent Nigerians who spoke against the withdrawal, former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN), regretted that the nation was gradually tending towards despotism.
Akeredolu, who contested last year’s governorship election in Ondo State on the platform of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), said President Jonathan was not properly advised.
“We now probably have a despot at the head of government in Nigeria, ” he said.
He said it was not the first time such a thing was happening in the country, recalling that when Senator Chris Ngige was  governor of Anambra State his security details were withdrawn and he had to provide his own security arrangement.
Akeredolu said that in the event of withdrawal of the security details of Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, it would not be wrong if he used militants to protect himself.
In his reaction, another legal luminary, Itse Sagay (SAN), said the withdrawal of the Speaker’s security details is undemocratic, anti-federalist and not in the best interest of the nation.
Prof Itse Sagay described the face-off between President Goodluck Jonathan and  Governor Chibuike Amaechi as a threat to the nation’s democracy and the rule of law.
In a statement made available to Sunday Sun, Sagay said the deployment of federal security apparatus to intimidate the governor to give up his ambition of becoming vice president to a northern candidate was a clear violation of the principle of federalism.
“When any Nigerian is threatened and his environment is surrounded by dark clouds and storms being witnessed in Rivers State, it is democracy and democratic rights in the whole country that is endangered,” he said.
According to him, “the grounding of the official private jet of the Rivers State government was intended apparently to cripple the governor’s movements around the country.
He further condemned  police attempt to prevent the House of Assembly from functioning and alleged withdrawal of security details to the Speaker, adding “that the developments have demonstrated the fact that Nigeria is not a federation, but merely a unitary state pretending to be one”.
“The fundamental and distinguishing characteristic of a federal system is that neither the central nor the regional governments are sub-ordinate to each other, rather, the two are co-ordinate and independent.
“In short, in a federal system, there is no hierarchy of authorities, with the central government sitting atop of others. All governments have a horizontal relationship with each other,” he said, adding that it had become imperative for the National Assembly to have a re-think on the issue of state police and other national questions bordering on true autonomy of federating units.
“From what has been happening in recent weeks in Rivers State, it is clear that if every state has its own police, there will be no need for the Federal Police to provide security for state authorities and agencies. Therefore, to the extent that states do not have their own police forces, our federalism remains incomplete and under-developed. The National Assembly therefore, has a lot of re-thinking to do about the present attempt to amend the Constitution,” he added.
For constitutional lawyer and human rights activist, Dr Tunji Abayomi, the statutory obligation of the police is to protect the lives of the citizens, hence they should not get themselves involved in political decisions.
He said the Constitution refers to the governors as Chief Security Officers of the state, even though they are not in control of the police in their states.
“They are like unarmed Generals. And as long as things remain like this, there will always be crisis in the management of the state.
On impeachment threat on Governor Chibuike Amaechi, he said: “Anything is possible in Nigeria.”
The political leadership determines and chooses anything it wants according to its wishes rather than the dictates of the Constitution. It was in this same country that Balarabe Musa was wrongly impeached, and other instances. But I think the court should be able to rise above some of these challenges. Again, the court is already overburdened because of the unsettled political system we find ourselves.”.

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