A member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Solomon Bob has accused the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) of insincerity and hypocrisy, following the association’s condemnation of the state of emergency in Rivers State.
President Ahmed Bola Tinubu had on 18th March issued a proclamation declaring a state of emergency in Rivers state after a prolonged crisis involving Governor Siminilayi Fubara and the Martin Amaewhule-led House of Assembly loyal to Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike.
Justifying the emergency rule however, the Rivers lawmaker in a statement made available to newsmen on Thursday, said the NBA “cannot circumscribe or amend the clear untrammelled and discretionary powers granted the President by Section 305 of the constitution, neither is the NBA in a position to interpret or determine what measures qualify as extraordinary – which the President is required to adopt under the same section.”
According to him, the NBA does not have “the jurisdictional competence or ethical example to be a barometer for measuring democracy and constitutionalism”, adding that an association of lawyers, which should be a model of democratic participation, has become a cartel for pursuing narrow interests to the point where it is “unable organise its elections based on the principle of universal franchise, devoid of zoning.”
While also describing the NBA’s statement as a distraction, the lawmaker stated that “Having witnessed Fubara’s dangerous and incomparable incompetence first-hand, and the embarrassing diminution his actions have exposed my state to, I consider the statement arrogant and a gratuitous insult.”
He faulted “NBA’s grudging claim” that the sum of N300 million naira was a gift as being unreasonable and unbecoming of a “self-appointed ombudsman”, demanding that the money be returned to the coffers of the Rivers State government.