{"id":155664,"date":"2025-03-19T09:10:04","date_gmt":"2025-03-19T08:10:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/rivers-tinubu-has-committed-impeachable-offence-abati"},"modified":"2025-04-03T17:50:31","modified_gmt":"2025-04-03T16:50:31","slug":"rivers-tinubu-has-committed-impeachable-offence-abati","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/rivers-tinubu-has-committed-impeachable-offence-abati","title":{"rendered":"Rivers: Tinubu has committed impeachable offence \u2013 Abati"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>Dr. Reuben Abati, a veteran journalist and former Senior Adviser on Media and Publicity to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, on Wednesday, said that President Bola Tinubu has committed impeachable offence.<\/p>\n<p>Abati argued that a governor cannot be removed from office by the proclamation of the president of Nigeria.<\/p>\n<p>He made the assertion on Wednesday during the Arise Television\u2019s Morning Show programme.<\/p>\n<p>The statement comes after Tinubu on Tuesday night declared a state of emergency in Rivers State.<\/p>\n<p>The President made the pronouncement in a nationwide broadcast to the nation.<\/p>\n<p>Tinubu claimed that he was \u201cgreatly disturbed about the political crisis\u201d in the state and accused Governor Siminilayi Fubara of demolishing the State House of Assembly building.<\/p>\n<p>He said having made an evaluation of the situation, he has decided to \u201cdeclare a state of emergency from March 18\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>However, Abati said that President Tinubu violated the Constitution even within the purview of Section 305, insisting that he was not properly advised in respect of that Section of the Constitution.<\/p>\n<p>Abati said that President Tinubu also appropriated unto himself the powers to make laws for the Rivers State House of Assembly, noting that it was an impeachable offense.<\/p>\n<p>He also argued that Tinubu had acted as a dictator by saying that the Administrator that he has appointed can make regulations and that laws will be made for the Rivers State House of Assembly by the Federal Executive Council.<\/p>\n<p>Abati said: \u201cLet me first comment from an interpretation of the Constitution which the President himself highlighted. He said he was acting within the purview of Section 305 of the Constitution.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSection 305 of the Constitution explains the circumstances under which the President shall declare a state of emergency, and the conditions are properly stated, if the country is facing a threat of war or imminent war. Is Nigeria facing the threat of war in Rivers state? That\u2019s one question.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt also talks about, you know, a situation whereby something could happen in any part of the Federation where, you know, Nigeria, could find itself in a chaotic situation, the President is required to act.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNumber three, where the governor in that particular state does not immediately respond, you know, to the crisis situation and does not approach the President to act in the national interest.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo those conditions are properly spelt out. However, that same section 305, says that the President, you know, will give a proclamation, which will be gazetted, and then we\u2019ll go to the National Assembly, and the National Assembly, if it\u2019s in session within, I think, 48 hours would act. If it\u2019s in recess within 10 days will act.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf the National Assembly does not consider that particular proclamation gazetted valid, then it will vote otherwise, two thirds majority of the two houses, the Senate and the House of Representatives. And if that happens, the decision is abated.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLet me now say that section 305 which the president quoted is the operative principle. Now let\u2019s look at what the President said. I think that the President has violated the Constitution even within the purview of Section 305 and he has violated the Constitution because he did not, he was not properly advised to respect that Section of the Constitution.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn what regard did he violate that Section of the Constitution? In fact, he acted as a dictator by saying that the administrator that he has appointed can make regulations and laws will be made for the Rivers State House of Assembly by the Federal Executive Council.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Federal Executive Council does not have such powers. Section 11 of the same constitution says that, look, when there is a state of emergency, it\u2019s only the National Assembly that can make laws for a state House of Assembly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow, President Tinubu has appropriated unto himself the powers to make laws for the Rivers State House of Assembly. That\u2019s an impeachable offense.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know whether the National Assembly will have the courage either to reject his gazetted proclamation or to proceed on an issue of impeachment against him for violating the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow the other relevant portion of the Constitution is Section 188 of the Constitution which spells out how a governor can be removed from office.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA governor cannot be removed from office by the proclamation of the president of Nigeria, it can only be really removed if there is gross misconduct, as you know, put as an allegation by the House of Assembly, and then the CJ is advised to form a panel of reasonable people, you know, people of distinguished qualities in the state.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd if that panel now decides, within the purview of Section 180 that those allegations are wrong, that puts an end to that process. The President has not followed that.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe has acted unilaterally. Section one, sub Section two of the same constitution says that this country, called Nigeria, cannot be governed except by the provisions of the Constitution.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is no provision in the 1999 Constitution that says that the president of Nigeria can unilaterally remove a governor, remove the deputy governor, remove the legislature in Nigeria.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo, that, again, proves that this is a violation of the Constitution. The people who advised the president must be called to order.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Nigeria<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. Dr. Reuben Abati, a veteran journalist and former Senior Adviser on Media and Publicity to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, on Wednesday, said that President Bola Tinubu has committed impeachable offence. Abati argued that a governor cannot be removed from office by the proclamation of the president of Nigeria. He made the assertion on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":155663,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,14],"tags":[10239,254,421,945],"class_list":["post-155664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-abati","tag-nigeria","tag-rivers","tag-tinubu"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Rivers: Tinubu has committed impeachable offence \u2013 Abati - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Dr. Reuben Abati, a veteran journalist and former Senior Adviser on Media and Publicity to ex-President Goodluck Jonatha ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/rivers-tinubu-has-committed-impeachable-offence-abati\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rivers: Tinubu has committed impeachable offence \u2013 Abati\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dr. Reuben Abati, a veteran journalist and former Senior Adviser on Media and Publicity to ex-President Goodluck Jonatha ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/rivers-tinubu-has-committed-impeachable-offence-abati\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-03-19T08:10:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-04-03T16:50:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/03\/sm_1742363739.993063.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/rivers-tinubu-has-committed-impeachable-offence-abati#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/rivers-tinubu-has-committed-impeachable-offence-abati\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Rivers: Tinubu has committed impeachable offence \u2013 Abati\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-03-19T08:10:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-04-03T16:50:31+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/rivers-tinubu-has-committed-impeachable-offence-abati\"},\"wordCount\":897,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/rivers-tinubu-has-committed-impeachable-offence-abati#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/03\/sm_1742363739.993063.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Abati\",\"Nigeria\",\"Rivers\",\"Tinubu\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/rivers-tinubu-has-committed-impeachable-offence-abati#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/rivers-tinubu-has-committed-impeachable-offence-abati\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/rivers-tinubu-has-committed-impeachable-offence-abati\",\"name\":\"Rivers: Tinubu has committed impeachable offence \u2013 Abati - 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