Human Rights Writers’ Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has said the nation’s apex court now has the final opportunity to redeem the waning public image of the Nigerian judiciary by adjudication judiciously, the matter instituted by some Nigerian governors challenging President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s proclamation of a state of emergency and the suspension of a sitting Governor of Rivers state: Mr. Siminilayi Fubara.
HURIWA said that the Nigerian judiciary has never witnessed the kind of downturn and loss of public confidence and trust on the integrity, credibility of the judiciary to such a terrible extent that over 98 percent of Nigerians believed that President Bola Tinubu has effectively pocketed the judiciary given that he was instrumental to the phenomenal rise of the current chief justice of Nigeria who was the justice that pronounced the then APC governorship candidate Hope Uzodimma who came 4th in the Imo state election as the winner thereby displacing the governor Emeka Ihedioha of the PDP.
Besides, the Supreme Court’s recent highly biased and openly partisan judgment read by Justice Emmanuel Agim lambasting Governor Fubara and stopping the Central Bank of Nigeria from remitting the rightful allocations from the Federation Account to the coffers of the Rivers state government- a politically motivated ruling that led to the destabilisation of democratic structures of Rivers state including the unconstitutional suspension of Governor Fubara by President Tinubu.
The Rights group said the inability of the Supreme Court to sanction Justice Emmanuel Agim for openly fraternising with the FCT minister Mr. Nyesom Wike at the recently held convocation ceremony of the University of Calabar shows the complicity and compromise with the executive arm of government by the Nigerian judiciary whose hierarchy is domiciled in the Supreme Court.
HURIWA therefore affirmed that the time has now come for the World to see whether or not it is factually accurate the conspiracy theory that President Bola Tinubu has the Nigerian judiciary in his pockets just as the Rights group said the decision by the Supreme Court of Nigeria in this matter brought by 11 governors of the PDP with specific request for interpretation of the Constitution to ascertain if an elected president with same constitutional ways of impeachment just like the elected governor of the states, have the powers to unseat or unilaterally suspend a sitting governor like it was done to Governor Fubara of Rivers State just as HURIWA said the verdict on this case is a verdict on the integrity of the Supreme Court of Nigeria and would be the last stroll that would break the camel’s back in terms of trusting the judiciary.
HURIWA recalled that the governors, in the suit marked: SC/CV/329/2025, predicated the summons on eight grounds.
The plaintiffs in the suit are Adamawa, Enugu, Osun, Oyo, Bauchi, Akwa Ibom, Plateau, Delta, Taraba, Zamfara, and Bayelsa states.
The plaintiffs urged the Supreme Court to determine if the President had the power to suspend a democratically elected structure of a state.
They also asked the apex court to determine if the way and manner the President pronounced the state of emergency declaration in Rivers State was not in contravention of the 1999 Constitution.
Amongst others, all 11 governors in the suit, filed through their state Attorney Generals, prayed the court to determine the following, “Whether upon a proper construction and interpretation of the provisions of Sections 1(2), 5(2), 176, 180, 188 and 305 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria can lawfully suspend or in any manner whatsoever interfere with the offices of a Governor and the Deputy Governor of any of the component 36 States of the Federation of Nigeria and replace same with his own unelected nominee as a Sole Administrator, under the guise of, or pursuant to, a Proclamation of a State of Emergency in any of the State of the Federation, particularly in any of the Plaintiffs States?
HURIWA which believes that there is no provision of the extant Grund Norm that authorises the sitting President to suspend a sitting governor, has therefore reminded the Chief Justice of Nigeria Mrs. Kekere-Ekun that Nigerians will judge the Supreme Court and the judiciary by the kind of pronouncement the Supreme Court eventually makes in the aforesaid matter especially with regards to the decision of the president to suspend a sitting governor. “The judgment in this matter will determine whether Nigerians will support constitutional democracy or conclude that the judiciary has endorsed TOTALITARIANISM AND DICTATORSHIP OF ONE MAN.
Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko
National Coordinator
HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA). April 9th 2025.
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