A government or division of government (on a municipal, national/ state level) may declare that their area is in a state of emergency.
It means that the government can suspend and change some functions of the executive, the Legislature and or the Judiciary during this period of time.
Government can also declare a state of emergency in areas of disasters, severe political disturbances, killings, maiming, murder, fire outbreak, rot in institutional services and so on.
It is a situation of national danger or disaster in which a government can suspend normal constitutional procedures in order to regain absolute control and rescue the area from the breakdown of law and order.
The Nigerian scenario of the declaration of a state of emergency in some states or Region dates back to May 29, 1962 when a motion was moved by Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, then Prime Minister in the House of Representatives.
The motion was purely designed to declare a state of emergency in the Western Region in view of the irreconcilable political crises in that area. Principally, the political turmoil revolved on the legendary Chief Obafemi Awolowo and his political soul mate, Chief Ladoke Akintola.
Moses Majekodunmi, a Medical Doctor, was appointed to administer the West. However, it must be stated clearly that the state of emergency later snowballed into the January 15, 1966 military coup led by Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu. On May 18, 2004, President Olusegun Obasanjo declared a state of emergency in Plateau State. Governor Joshua Dariye, was sacked from office due to what was regarded as his inability to act positively during the cycle of violence between the Plateau State’s Muslim and Christian communities.
The bloodletting was alleged to have claimed more than two thousand lives. Chris Alli, was appointed as an interim Administrator to run the affairs of Plateau State for six months. On October 18, 2006, Sahara Reporters revealed that a state of emergency had been declared in Ekiti State by President Olusegun Obasanjo. Governor Ayodele Fayose was also relieved of his position while the State House of Assembly was sacked.
Tunji Olurin, a retired Army General, was appointed to administer the state. Again, on March 21, 2016, Ayo Fayose, the incumbent Governor of Ekiti State was quoted as saying that “he is waiting for President Muhammadu Buhari to declare a state of emergency in Ekiti”.
At the moment, it is further alleged that members of the Ekiti State House of Assembly are being detained by the Department of State Services inorder to force them to sign an impeachment notice against the Governor himself.
If this impeachment rumour is true, and if it succeeds, it shall be the second time that Ayodele Fayose would be sacked from office in a democratic setting. The Governor has been the most vocal critic of the Buhari administration and it is certain that the operators of the Federal Government and the APC are not comfortable with him.
I will also state that there were no crises in Ekiti State in the pre, during and postinto the January 15, 1966 military coup led by Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu.
On May 18, 2004, President Olusegun Obasanjo declared a state of emergency in Plateau State. Governor Joshua Dariye, was sacked from office due to what was regarded as his inability to act positively during the cycle of violence between the Plateau State’s Muslim and Christian communities.
The bloodletting was alleged to have claimed more than two thousand lives. Chris Alli, was appointed as an interim Administrator to run the affairs of Plateau State for six months. On October 18, 2006, Sahara Reporters revealed that a state of emergency had been declared in Ekiti State by President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Governor Ayodele Fayose was also relieved of his position while the State House of Assembly was sacked. Tunji Olurin, a retired Army General, was appointed to administer the state. Again, on March 21, 2016, Ayo Fayose, the incumbent Governor of Ekiti State was quoted as saying that “he is waiting for President Muhammadu Buhari to declare a state of emergency in Ekiti”.
At the moment, it is further alleged that members of the Ekiti State House of Assembly are being detained by the Department of State Services inorder to force them to sign an impeachment notice against the Governor himself.
If this impeachment rumour is true, and if it succeeds, it shall be the second time that Ayodele Fayose would be sacked from office in a democratic setting. The Governor has been the most vocal critic of the Buhari administration and it is certain that the operators of the Federal Government and the APC are not comfortable with him.
I will also state that there were no crises in Ekiti State in the pre, during and post election periods. Fayose clearly won the Governorship election despite all the advantages of incumbency in favour of Dr. Kayode Fayemi, who was Governor. The only political logjam prevalent in Ekiti has been the deliberate attempts to invoke Federal Security apparatus of State to intimidate members of the House of Assembly over some allegations which are yet to be authenticated via a due process of the law.
The re-run elections slated by INEC in accordance with the Court’s judgment in Rivers State was a direct equivalent of do or die affair between PDP and APC political gladiators. Concrete evidence has shown that the said election was bloody with about four persons dead. The people of Rivers should be ashamed of this violence which ought not to have taken place in the first instance.
However, Nyesome Wike, the PDP Governor, has attributed the violence to cultist clashes in the state. Will it then be comfortable to conclude that the personal assistant of the Chief of Staff to the state Governor was killed by cultists?
What of the clash between Governor Wike and Chibuike Amaechi, the Transportation Minister, at the Mile 1 Diobu Police Station, over a collation Officer of the INEC, Mrs Ekwi Adebisa? Was this clash also engineered and perpetrated by the cultists?
I want to recall vividly that Amaechi boasted that he had relocated to Port Harcourt and was ready for the election contest with a reasonable number of Armed State Security Personnel of the Federal Government.
There is no doubt that the boastings further aggravated the violent situation. The facts of the rumoured intent to declare a state of emergency in Rivers will further heat up the polity, the end of which nobody can tell. It is not worth any political adventure, rather, Government ought to confine itself to tackling grave and sensitive national issues.
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