Rivers crisis: Tinubu should do this to Wike immediately – Alban Nwapa

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Dr. Alban Unoma Nwapa, a well-known Nigerian singer, has criticized President Bola Tinubu’s decision to proclaim a state of emergency in Rivers State.

According to Nwapa, Tinubu ought to have summoned Nyesom Wike, the minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), instead of announcing a state of emergency.

Tinubu had suspended Governor Sim Fubara for six months and declared a state of emergency in response to the political crisis in Rivers State.

Additionally, Tinubu suspended every member of the state House of Assembly as well as the deputy governor of Rivers State.

The conflict between Wike and Fubara was the root cause of his behavior.

Martins Amaewhule, who initially claimed to have defected from the Peoples Democratic Party to the All Progressives Congress, commanded the 27-member parallel assembly that emerged as a result of the crisis.

However, Fubara was appointed to represent the 2025 budget after the Supreme Court ordered their return.

After the decision, Fubara tried to represent the budget, but Amaewhule’s Assembly blocked his entry to the complex.

The superstar, whose distinctive style of music dominated the airwaves from the late 1990s to the 2000s, responded to the situation by complaining that Tinubu lacked the constitutional authority to remove Fubara and his deputy.

Addressing journalists in Abuja, Alban said: “And to think that this man, Fubara, was democratically elected by the people while the other person is just a minister, no electoral value in his own state of around 2 million eligible voters or more!

“And the annoying part is that he has not been made to also share part of the punishment being meted out to Fubara.

“In fact, nobody has mentioned his name. Supreme Court didn’t mention his name, the Senate didn’t mention his name, the President didn’t mention his name, nobody mentioned his name! It is really sad.

“Oh, my answer to that is simple, the President should’ve called Wike to order rather than declare a State of Emergency on Rivers.

“Calling Wike to order would’ve been the sensible thing to do because he is the reason we got into this whole mess in the first place! Slamming state of Emergency on Rivers has totally decimated the democratic structure of the state. It has ridiculed the entire democratic setting.

“You suspended both the governor and his deputy, even when you do not have the constitutional power to do so.

“The State House of Assembly will cease to function for the next six months as well? Come on, this is absurd. Let’s not even begin to talk about how wasteful it is to impose state of Emergency on the state.

“Or, are they not going to pay the new Administrator? Will he not have his own retinue of staff and security detail?

“The almost 10,000 soldiers that have been deployed to Rivers on Special Duties will be paid heavily as well. There is a whole lot of financial implications involved, and all at whose expense?

“Tax payers’ money of course! So, it’s much cheaper to call Wike to order than taking this illogical decision of State of Emergency. But let’s even put the cost implication aside, the heavy damage it has done to the democratic set up of Rivers state is what is painful. It is annoying. It will take them quite some time to recover from this set back.”

On what Tinubu’s action portend for Nigeria’s democracy, Alban said: “Its like setting a bad precedent because what it means now is that all the other governors too should expect that anything can happen to them anytime.

“One morning, the President can just wake up and decide he no longer likes the face of a particular governor and then suspend him from office! Is that the kind of country we’re in now?

“And this National Assembly na wa! This voice voting, it’s crazy! Yes, I know they do a lot of crazy things but this one shook me. It shook me.

“We know they do a lot of unthinkable things, we know, but this voice vote to determine 2/3rd is daylight robbery.

“It shocked me and surprised me that they have the audacity to do this. A state that boasts of millions of eligible voters yet they did this type of thing?

“And then they didn’t even care if there were any consequences to what they were doing. The voice voting is the part I don’t understand, how do you determine 2/3rd by voice voting? This is madness.”

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