– Describes It As Illegality Dressed In Political Garments
An Owerri based legal practitioner and political analyst, Hon Barr Ephraim Okafor has expressed concern over a recent statement made by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nysem Wike that the State of emergency declared by President Bola Tinubu in Rivers State will be lifted on September 18, 2025.
Okafor, who described the statement as a constitutional overreach wondered what gave Wike a former Governor of the State the audacity to make such pronouncement that is the prerogative of the President according to section, “305 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended)”.
Okafor, in a statement he issued said, “On Saturday, the 30th of August, 2025, Nigerians were greeted not with the fragrance of democracy, but with the smoke of reckless utterance. Nyesom Wike, former Governor of Rivers State and now Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, declared before the ballot box that the “state of emergency” in Rivers shall be lifted on the 18th of September, 2025.
But let us pause and ask: By whose authority? For in law, not every loud voice carries weight, and not every staff raised in the market square is a sceptre.
The Constitution is the compass of our republic. Section 305 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) is as clear as the noon sun: the power to proclaim or lift a state of emergency is the prerogative of the President alone, guarded by the watchful eyes of the National Assembly. Even a Governor may only request, but never proclaim. A Minister of the FCT—far removed from the governance of Rivers—has no such constitutional robe to wear. To attempt it is to dress illegality in the garment of politics.
Adages remind us: “A toad does not run in the daytime for nothing; if it is not after something, then something is after it.” Wike’s pronouncement is not rooted in law but in the soil of politics—an overreach designed to rattle and confuse. It is like the masquerade that abandons its village square to dance in another man’s courtyard. The law laughs at such excess.
Section 305(6) further makes it plain: without the ratification of the National Assembly, no emergency proclamation can stand beyond two or ten days. Where then lies the authority of Wike to lift what he never lawfully declared? It is akin to a tenant promising to sell the landlord’s compound—an empty boast dressed in arrogance.
Our democracy cannot thrive on constitutional shortcuts. “When the wall cracks, the lizard finds its way in.” If ministers, governors, or any political actor begin to assume presidential powers, then the Constitution becomes a broken gourd from which every thirsty politician may drink. That path leads not to order but to chaos.
Therefore, Nigerians must see this declaration for what it is: not an act of statesmanship, but an act of political mischief. The Constitution must remain our shield, lest ambition replaces law and the rule of men devours the rule of law.
Let it be known: the voice of law is louder than the voice of politics, and no minister, however loud, can usurp the silence of the Constitution”.
