Vice President Kashim Shettima stirred the hornet’s nest recently when he said a former Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Mr. Mohammed Adoke (SAN), advised former President Goodluck Jonathan not to remove him as governor of Borno State when a state of emergency was declared in the state.

Speaking in Abuja  at the public presentation of a book titled ‘OPL 245: Inside Story of the $1.3 billion Nigeria Oil Block’, authored by Adoke, Shettima stated that during the final four years of Jonathan’s administration, he was the most demonized individual.

Shettima was governor of the insurgent-ridden Borno State from May 2011 to May 2019. At the peak of the insurgency, on December 31, 2011, Jonathan declared a state of emergency in some local governments in Borno and Plateau states.

On May 14, 2013, Jonathan declared a state of emergency for the entire terrorist-plagued states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa.

The vice president said Adoke told the then president that he did not have the powers to remove a sitting governor, not even a councillor. He also said Aminu Tambuwal, the then Speaker of the House of Representatives, told then President Jonathan that he cannot remove a sitting governor from office.

He said Adoke sought for the opinion of another Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) in the cabinet, Kabiru Turaki, who said: ‘I’m concurring with the opinion of my senior colleague’.

Shettima praised Adoke and Tambuwal for their courage, conviction and unwavering commitment to their principles.

With the revelation by Shettima, many are wondering where he was when President Bola Tinubu declared the same state of emergency in Rivers State in March and suspended the sitting governor of Rivers State, Siminalayi Fubara; his deputy, and all the elected members of the state House of Assembly?

Though Section 305 of the 1999 Constitution gives the president the power to declare a state of emergency in any part of the country, it does not give him the power to remove or suspend the democratically-elected governors and other officials from office. 

Where was the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Mr. Lateef Fagbemi to stand stall on the issue like Adoke? Why couldn’t he advise Tinubu appropriately that it would be unconstitutional to take such action?

It is also important to ask: Like Tambuwal in the days of Jonathan, where were the current Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, and even Senate President, Godswill Akpabio?

Is it that Tinubu is not a listening president like Jonathan?

Maybe there are more Shettima needs to tell Nigerians about the emergency rule in Rivers State if not now, maybe in the future.