Former President Goodluck Jonathan has described the State of Emergency declared on Rivers State by President Bola Tinubu as nothing but a gross abuse of power.
He stated this while speaking at an annual colloquium organised by the Haske Satumari Foundation and held in Abuja on Saturday.
President Tinubu had, on Tuesday, suspended Governor Siminalayi Fubara, his deputy and state legislature for six months and appointed retired Naval Chief of Staff, Vice Marshall Ibok-Ete Ibas as the Sole Administrator of the state.
Jonathan further said impunity within the three arms of government has done more damage to the global image of Nigeria than the activities of fraudsters.
The former president had, at the height of the Boko Haram insurgency in North-East, declared a state of emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states in 2014, but all the governors, lawmakers and elected officials of the affected states remained in office.
Jonathan said he was called upon to comment when the issue of the emergency rule first cropped up, but he noted that it was not often the tradition for former presidents to make public statements on the actions or inactions of an incumbent president.
“As a former President and also from the Niger Delta Region, when the issue of the suspension of the governor of Rivers State came up, people called me to speak out
“I think people called on me and former President Olusegun Obasanjo to say something. People wanted us to say something about what was happening.
“But people don’t know that all over the world, traditionally, former presidents and leaders hardly make public statements on sitting presidents. This is to avoid tensions which the statements of the former leaders could generate within the system.
“In most cases, it is the practice among former presidents to refrain from publicly commenting on the activities of sitting presidents.
“However, what is happening in Nigeria today regarding the situation in Rivers State can be likened to an Indian proverb that says ‘if somebody is sleeping, really sleeping, you can easily wake up that person. But if that person is pretending to be sleeping, you will find it difficult to wake up the person’.
“The key actors in Nigeria, from the Executive, Legislature, Judiciary to others, for me, are pretending to be sleeping. The Judiciary knows the best thing to do but unfortunately, it is refusing to do it.
“They are pretending to be sleeping and, like I pointed out earlier, waking up such an entity or persons will be extremely difficult. This is because the persons know the right thing but will not do it.
“There are clear cases of abuse of power cutting across the three arms of government, from the Executive, Legislature, to the Judiciary in the country.
“But I always try to let our people understand that whatever we do in life tend to affect everybody. But sometimes, we do things thinking that they don’t affect us,” Jonathan said.
He lamented that the high level of impunity and abuse of power in the country has impacted negatively on the image of Nigeria, with the citizens subjected to ill-treatments all over the world as a result.
“Some people have not bothered to find out why our country’s International Passport is not valued that much outside.
“Why is it that Nigerians are not given the kind of treatment befitting our status as a great country at international airports?
“Unfortunately, many of us think that the shabby treatment we receive outside is because of the activities of fraudsters, yahoo-yahoo boys, 419 operators and drug dealers.
“Unknown to many of us, the actions, decisions and the general conducts of those in government –the three arms of government –affect the image of Nigeria and its citizens all over the world,” Jonathan declared.
The former president noted that genuine and serious business operators and investors will find it extremely difficult to bring their capitals to countries where the judiciary arm of government is widely seen as compromised.
“No investor can bring his/her money to put in a country where the judiciary is compromised; officials of the executive arm are perceived to be influencing judgments from the judiciary.
“Anybody that brings his capital to such an environment will be taking a very big risk.
“The truth remains that whatever we do in the system will always have a way of either positively impacting us as a country and or ruining us.
“If we are desirous of building a prosperous, just and peaceful country where every segment will be happy, then we have to do the right thing.
“Whether you are holding an executive office as the president, governor, lawmaker, minister, judge and what have you, there is the need for us to do the right thing, if truly we want to build a nation that future generations will be proud of,” Jonathan advised.
