The proclamation of a state of emergency in Rivers state has been criticized by former vice president Atiku Abubakar, who has called it an attack on democracy that needs to be strongly denounced.
Reacting on his verified social media handle, the former vice president said the declaration is a political ploy that was made in bad faith.
He asserts that President Bola Tinubu cannot avoid accountability for the crisis in Rivers State that his administration has either caused or failed to stop.
He added that the president should take full responsibility if federal infrastructure in Rivers has been compromised, rather than imposing a state of emergency as a form of punishment on the residents of Rivers State.
Rivers State’s declaration of a state of emergency “reeks of political manipulation and blatant bad faith,” Atiku expressed.
Bola Tinubu has been a vested partisan actor in the political unrest enveloping Rivers, as anyone following the crisis will attest to. It is absolutely shameful that he willfully chose not to stop this escalation, or demonstrated deliberate ignorance in doing so.
Beyond the political intrigue in Rivers, the president is directly responsible for the egregious security lapses that resulted in the state’s national infrastructure being destroyed.
Tinubu is unable to avoid accountability for the instability that his government has either allowed or failed to stop.
The Niger Delta has been plunged back into a period of violent instability and unrest under Tinubu’s leadership, reversing the hard-won peace that the late President Umaru Yar’Adua had fought to achieve. This is an unforgivable failure. In the name of self-serving political considerations, years of progress have been carelessly lost.
“The President is solely accountable if federal infrastructure in Rivers has been harmed. It is absolutely unacceptable to punish the people of Rivers State in order to further the political gamesmanship between the governor and Tinubu’s supporters in the federal government. This is an attack on democracy.
