Following the landmark rulings by the Supreme Court of Nigeria (SCN) on the long-running political crisis in Rivers State, reactions have been flowing in torrents, featuring as many shades of opinion as can be mustered. Two of the most relevant rulings are that the statutory allocations to the state be withheld until the state budget is passed by a properly constituted Rivers State House of Assembly (RSHA) under Martin Amaewhule as Speaker.

The apex court had ordered all relevant agencies involved in processing and delivering funds to the Rivers State Government to comply. This effectively denies the state access to all federally sourced funds and is expected to have a telling effect on the administration of Siminalayi Fubara. The second is the sack of all elected local government officials who were elected last year on the ground that their election breached extant statutory provisions.

While there are strident outcries over the SCN rulings, the fact remains that each of such is also availed reliefs, which the Rivers State Government needs to comply with to get itself on course again. For instance, the Rivers State Government can represent the budget to the RSHA and enjoy a return of its statutory funds, just as it can also conduct a fresh local government poll – an exercise already fixed for August this year.

It is, therefore, encouraging that among the reactions to the ruling, Governor Siminalayi Fubara had in a statewide broadcast last week assured that he would implement the rulings of the apex court. This ostensibly constitutes the most positive and valuable reaction to the SCN rulings as it guarantees a sustainable follow-up in the course of the crisis. Besides, the governor’s reaction remains critical as it is one of the focal points in whatever will be the play-out of the SCN rulings.

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In the same vein, the SCN rulings also confer on the Rivers State House of Assembly the responsibility to resume legislative activities, which were notionally truncated in the course of the long running crisis. By the same token, its resumption is to address itself to the imperative of fostering good governance, which is the intendment of the justice of the SCN. 

It is against this backdrop that the recent actions of the RSHA following its resumption – to wit the flurry of correspondences to the state governor smack of a deviation from the intendment of the justices of the SCN.  For instance, one letter asked the governor to re-present the budget within 48 hours. Another asked for the sack of all commissioners serving in the government who were not cleared by the Amewhule-led Assembly. Yet another request is that the governor should also sack all holders of political offices within the space of one day.  Still, another letter summoned the chairman of the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission, Justice Enebeli. Ostensibly, what the RSHA is asking for is the immediate dismantling of the Fubara administration. Taken in context, all of these correspondences point unmistakable to a grand agenda of discomfiting not only the governor but the entire state.

 In any case, while the RSHA stands in its right to make legitimate demands on the state governor, the truth requires that due process should be adhered to in the course of requesting and compliance, with respect to the requests under consideration. And that is where the source of fresh friction between the governor and the Assembly will spring from.

As is traditional throughout the entire terrain of public service, there are expedients and procedures that determine the success or failure of any process or task. These expedients and procedures take into consideration the imperatives that need to be addressed for each public service task or initiative to be successful and accomplished. For instance, giving a state governor 48 hours to represent a budget falls into one of the impossible conditions for such activity. This is just as asking for the sack of all commissioners and other political officeholders within the space of a day also constitutes a tall order.

While it was not specifically granted by the SCN in its rulings, it is not specifically contained in the reliefs granted by the court. Beyond falling outside the specific pronouncement of the SCN, the requests discount whatever prior statutory obligations facing the latter, pending the order and may constitute an impossible request to honour. This is just as dangling in the air like the proverbial Sword of Damocles, the threat of impeachment of the governor remains most disingenuous.