Founding National Secretary of the Alliance for Democracy, Prof Udenta Udenta, has accused the Bola Tinubu presidency of dismantling democratic values and weaponing the judiciary, and the 1999 Constitution (as amended) against Nigerians.

Udenta, a fellow of the Abuja School of Social and Political Thought, said the suspension of Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State was a distortion of democratic institutions by the Tinubu government.

This was as the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Worldwide, has also lamented that Rivers was under military dictatorship on alleged selfish interest by some politicians from the state and at the presidency.

But factional chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state, Tony Okocha, has said the suspension of Fubara has solved about 90 per cent of the political crisis in the state.

Addressing the situation, Udenta said, “The system that should protect democratic governance, you are weaponising them; the judiciary, the apparatus of the state, you are distorting, diluting and transmogrifying them in a way and manner that is shutting down democratic conversations.

“That is what you find as the legacy of the Bola Tinubu president and his political agents,” Udenta said on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme.

The scholar said dismantling democratic principles isn’t by shooting guns but by misusing democratic instruments like the constitution and the judiciary.

“When you abandon the foundational norms of democracy and then you begin to use instruments you acquired in power to dismantle the guardrails that govern the democratic system, then democracy dies.

“It is not by firing a shot that democracy dies or crumbles, it is leveraging the guardrails like the constitution, like what was done in Rivers State, to abort democratic rules,” he said.

 He  also accused Rivers State Administrator, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas of dismantling the levers of democracy with his suspension of all political appointees in the oil-rich state.

“You find the sole administrator strutting around Port Harcourt, dismantling democratic infrastructure,” he said.

Udenta described what is practised in Rivers State as a “hybrid regime which is a part of competitive authoritarianism” being deployed to “manacle the spirit of a nation and abort democratic institutions at all levels” including labour unions, media houses, political parties, and civil societies.

He regretted that the quality of the lives of Nigerians in the last two years has so depreciated, lamenting that there was widespread hunger and poverty in the land with escalating food inflation usurping the income of average Nigerians.

“There is poverty in the land, there is hunger everywhere, inflation is soaring, criminality and terrorism and all manners of insecurity pervade the nation, and the government is bemused like this current one,” he said.

IYC Alleges Rivers Under Military 

Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Worldwide, has decried that the state is under military dictatorship on alleged selfish interest by some politicians from the state and at the presidency.

In a statement by its Secretary General, Maobuye Nangi Obu, he tackled Ibas of allegedly contradicting the law by suspending appointees of an elected governor.

The group said the suspension of commissions and boards with clear tenures in the state is an affront on the rights of Rivers people.

It stated further that the administrator in his recent actions, showed he was allegedly executing the agenda of the Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, adding that the battle was for the economic soul of the state.

“It was President Thomas Jefferson who said we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, that to secure these rights governments are instituted among men.

“The latest announcement by the Rivers State Administrator, Vice Admiral (Rtd) Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas, suspending statutory commissions and boards with clear tenures in Rivers State is an affront on the rights of Rivers people and nothing short of a full-blown military dictatorship in action.

“This reckless move, executed under the guise of presidential authority, is a desperate attempt to remove all possible checks and balances to facilitate the looting of Rivers State’s resources.

“It is now beyond doubt that the Administrator is merely a puppet executing the agenda of former Governor Nyesom Wike, who remains hell-bent on controlling the state and draining its wealth.”

Fubara’s Suspension Solved 90% of Rivers Political Crisis, Says Factional APC Chair

Factional Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State, Tony Okocha, has said the suspension of Siminilayi Fubara as governor has solved 90 per cent of the political crisis in the state.

Okocha while addressing journalists on Thursday in Abuja,said the state of emergency recently declared by President Bola Tinubu saved the state from anarchy.

“For the immediate, it was necessary. The decision of Mr. President was a necessary evil. Whether the impeachment or suspension  as it were today, I can tell you that 90 per cent of the political crisis in Rivers was solved,” Okocha said.

He said most of the opposition leaders in the state barely leftwhere they were hiding because of the fear of the unknown.

Okocha noted that though the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has described the state of emergency as an assault against democracy, he wondered where the legal body was when the state assembly was pulled down by Fubara.

“NBA has come out to say the declaration of State of emergency in Rivers was an assault or democracy, but where was NBA when the state Assembly was pulled down.

“Rivers state was headed towards anarchy. Non-state actors were brandishing sophisticated ammunition and threatened that if the governor is impeached they will unleash mayhem,” he said.