Rivers: Emergency rule, Nigeria’s old bad habit – Ubani, SAN

By Henry Ojelu

ABUJA — Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Dr. Monday Ubani, has described President Bola Tinubu’s suspended emergency rule in Rivers State as proof that Nigeria has not broken free from its long, unhealthy attachment to suspending democratic institutions whenever crises erupt.

“Emergency rule is not Tinubu’s invention,” Ubani argued. “It is Nigeria’s old bad habit, rehearsed again and again since independence.”

Tracing the history, Ubani recalled that the very first emergency rule was declared in May 1962 by Prime Minister Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, following violent clashes between the factions of Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Chief S.L. Akintola in the Western Region. Balewa suspended the regional government, dissolved the legislature, and installed Dr. Moses Majekodunmi as administrator.

“That became the template. Once politicians failed, the solution was to throw democracy into the cooler and bring in unelected caretakers,” Ubani explained
He noted that the playbook returned during President Olusegun Obasanjo’s era.

Plateau State was placed under emergency rule in 2004 and Ekiti in 2006, with both governors and assemblies shoved aside while retired generals administered the states. Obasanjo, Ubani said, justified the moves by claiming the politicians had become the problem.

Tinubu followed that familiar pattern in March 2025, when political tensions in Rivers spiraled into violent clashes and sabotage of oil facilities. Governor Siminalayi Fubara, his deputy and the House of Assembly were suspended for six months, while Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas (rtd.) was drafted in as sole administrator.

Tinubu’s defence was that removing partisan actors was the only way to stabilise the oil-rich state. But Ubani warned that this approach, though historically common, carries serious dangers for Nigeria’s democracy.

He contrasted Tinubu’s choice with former President Goodluck Jonathan’s 2013 emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, which kept governors and assemblies in place despite the Boko Haram insurgency. That model, hailed at the time as a democratic compromise, avoided dismantling elected structures.

Ubani also recalled that late President Muhammadu Buhari steered clear of emergency declarations, instead relying on heavy military deployments nationwide, which critics described as a “militarised democracy.”

Summing up Nigeria’s record, Ubani said emergency powers have been wielded in two ways: the interventionist model, which sweeps away political actors entirely, and the preservationist model, which leaves them in place but imposes extraordinary security measures.

“Neither approach has solved our problems permanently,” he cautioned. “What we keep doing is suspending democracy instead of strengthening it. And every time we do, we make it harder to build public trust.”

Ubani insisted that the lesson of history is clear: emergency powers must be a last resort, exercised sparingly, supervised by the National Assembly, and followed immediately by a full restoration of democratic order.

“Until we break this cycle,” he warned, “Nigeria will continue treating democracy like a switch to be turned off whenever politicians quarrel.”

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