Law and Order Africa by Dr Oluwole Kunuji

Questions have been raised as to whether the intervention of the Nigerian President in certain matters connected with the internal politics of Rivers State in the last quarter of 2023 was constitutional? The principal argument of those who reject and decry the said intervention is that Nigeria being a federal country with supposed independence and autonomy of the federating States, the President has no constitutional authority whatsoever to intervene in or interfere with the internal politics of any of the said federating States. In essence, the protagonists of this argument harp on the federal character of the Nigerian State as the main plank of their argument for the exclusion of any presidential intervention in the political debacle in Rivers State. It seems to me that those who argue this way are either unfamiliar with or deliberately ignorant of Nigeria’s recent political history and the nature of her federal democratic system.  A Brief Overview of the Facts  The Rivers S...