PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu’s emergency proclamation in Rivers faced a major hurdle on Wednesday after lawmakers failed to attend the plenary.
Section 305 of the Nigerian Constitution mandates ratification of the president’s state of emergency proclamation with two-thirds of votes in the House of Representatives and the Senate, which must be done within two days of the order.
Tinubu announced the removal of Governor Simi Fubara of Rivers on Tuesday evening, promptly replacing him with a retired naval chief Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas.
But the lower legislative body convened on Wednesday morning with less than 80 lawmakers present, according to a report by Peoples Gazette.
The report said that after a roll call, the House fell significantly short of the 120 [one third] members needed to form a simple quorum in the 360-member legislature.
The House rules require a one-third quorum to take any binding action that could stand the test of a legal challenge in the courts.
A plenary that is not attended by up to 120 lawmakers can only pass resolutions, hear petitions, and debate motions and similar activities that require no enforcement mechanism.
The House has the emergency proclamation listed on its business on Wednesday, March 19, 2025 under messages from the president, according to the report in The Gazette.
Lawmakers said the House could still vote on the matter without a quorum, but it would be an illegal action that could easily be struck down in court.
“People have been debating whether the president has powers to declare emergency rule in the first place,” a lawmaker said.
“Purporting to ratify the state of emergency without a quorum of the House will only compound the illegality and make the atrocity even more transparent to all Nigerians,” he said.
In the report, The Gazette claimed to have heard that many lawmakers stayed away to avoid going on the record to have supported what analysts, with eyes on constitutionalism, have widely condemned as brazen illegality.
The Nigerian Constitution authorises the president to declare an emergency in all or parts of Nigeria, but no provision allows the removal of a state governor by the president.
In 2013, former President Goodluck Jonathan invoked similar powers to take over security in Boko-Haram-ravaged Borno and Yobe states.
Still, he left their respective elected governors and democratic institutions in place.
Mr Tinubu, the opposition leader back then, condemned Mr Jonathan’s action.
He, however, now defends his rights to invoke the same constitutional provision in an even more expansive dimension that vitiated the basis of constitutionality.
The Conclave
