The Nigerian Bar Association, or NBA, has once more urged President Bola Tinubu to promptly return Governor Siminalayi Fubara to his elected role as governor of Rivers State.

The NBA argued that Tinubu’s expulsion of Fubara was unconstitutional.

In response to the political crisis roiling the oil-rich state, President Tinubu proclaimed a state of emergency in Rivers State last Tuesday. This was followed by what many Nigerians have characterized as the unconstitutional suspension of the elected governor, his deputy, and every member of the House of Assembly.

Ibok-Ete Ibas, a retired naval chief, was named the state’s only administrator by the president.

The NBA had immediately released a statement saying the President lacked such powers to suspend democratically elected officials.

Following up on its earlier declaration, the NBA, whose president, Afam Osigwe, was a guest on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, demanded that Fubara be reinstated as Rivers State’s governor because the constitution does not recognize a sole administrator.

When questioned on the show if the president should recall the governor, Osigwe responded, “That is our belief, that is what we expect the president to do, to restore him (Fubara) back to power having unconstitutionally removed him.”

Because of this, we do not acknowledge that a single administrator, who was chosen in violation of the Constitution, is the legitimate occupant of the government building in Rivers State.

“Even when I witnessed him taking the oath of office, I was curious about the type of oath he was taking because the constitution does not recognize an administrator,” he stated.

Osigwe compared it to someone who has a headache and uses a sledgehammer on his head to illustrate how the issue in Rivers State is being solved incorrectly.

According to him, the actions being done to solve the Rivers issue “are extensive, overreaching, undemocratic, and most importantly, unconstitutional.”

He insisted that only a political solution could end the issue in Rivers State since it is a political one.

“I don’t think that Section 305 isn’t explicit; I just think that we purposefully don’t apply it that way,” Osigwe stated.

Furthermore, Osigwe does not think that the President’s action was justified by the national assembly’s assent.

The National Assembly’s approval, he claimed, is akin to putting something on nothing.