Despite a fresh peace deal sealed by hitherto warring factions in Rivers State, experts have urged governors on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) not to cave in to pressure to withdraw their suit at the Supreme Court challenging the suspension of Governor Siminalayi Fubara by President Bola Tinubu.
The political experts – Jide Ojo and Kenneth Nweke – were guests on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Friday.
According to them, the apex court should deliver a pronouncement on the controversial Section 305 of the 1999 Constitution, which the president said he relied on to suspend the democratically elected governor on March 18, 2025.
Ojo and Nweke said the verdict of the Supreme Court would clear all controversy about the legality or otherwise of any president to suspend a sitting governor upon the imposition of a state of emergency.
Nweke, a Professor of Politics and Governance at the Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Port Harcourt, in Rivers State, said no part of the constitution allows a president to suspend a democratically elected governor.
The don said, “The legal debate should be on as to whether the president has the power to suspend democratic structures, not just the executive arm of government, but the legislative arm of government.
“The democratic structures were suspended. That, for me, is an aberration. There is no part of the Constitution that allows that to happen.
“Legally speaking, I do not see anything to has justified what the president has done, but politically speaking, it may have saved the governor from being impeached.”
“I want to encourage those who have gone to court to allow the matter to subsist so that it will enrich our legal lexicon and debate around the state of emergency. And so that at the end of the day, we would have learned some lessons.
“It was not Governor Fubara who went to court to challenge (his suspension); it may be civil society organisations, it may be PDP Governors’ Forum who is in court, for me and for the benefit of the students I teach and for the purposes of research and the political development of Nigeria, those litigations should go on so that a lot of people will learn a lot and be enriched in our literature,” the scholar added.
‘Say No To Pressure’
Ojo, a political commentator, seconded the scholar, saying that though the political elite would mount all forms of pressure on PDP governors and civil society groups who are in court to challenge the legality or otherwise of the president’s decision, they should not budge.
“This was not a suit by filed the suspended governor, the deputy governor or the lawmakers, it is the civil society and there is that tendency for them to see it through, provided that pressure is not mounted on them to withdraw because I also do know that the political elite will stop at nothing. They might pressure those civil societies’ arrowheads to withdraw the suit in the interest of peace,” he said.
Ojo said the president goofed when he suspended Fubara, his deputy, Ngozi Odu, as well as the Rivers State House of Assembly members, for six months over the political crisis in the state.
“It would be very interesting if the civil society organisations that have gone to court can see it through to the apex court and have a definite conclusion,” he said.
For two years, Nyesom Wike, the immediate-past governor of Rivers State, and his estranged ex-political godson, Fubara, have locked horns over the control of the political structure in the state.
The Speaker of the state Assembly, Martins Amaewhule, who is loyal to Wike, had threatened to impeach Fubara over his alleged failure to implement a Supreme Court ruling on the political situation in the state.
Tinubu would later suspend the executive and the legislative arms of government and get the National Assembly to okay his decision. The president immediately appointed and swore in a retired naval chief, Vice Admiral Ibok-ete Ibas (rtd), as the sole administration for the oil-rich Niger Delta state, a move that was widely condemned.
Eleven PDP governors immediately approached the Supreme Court to challenge what powers the president has to suspend a democratically elected governor. Some civil society organisations are also in various lower courts to challenge the president’s decision.
Three months after the imposition of emergency rule in Rivers, Wike, Fubara, and the Amaewhule camp visited Tinubu in Abuja on June 26, 2025, and announced that they had all “agreed to work together”, an announcement that has been met with mixed feelings by Nigerians.
