Former Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Obong Victor Attah, has condemned the emergency rule declared in Rivers State, describing it as an affront to democracy and evidence that Nigeria is operating as though there is no constitution.
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Attah, who spoke on Wednesday during an interview on Arise Television, warned that the country had drifted far from the federal principles it was originally built upon.
“The situation in Nigeria is dire. By all indications, the devil has arrived in the country,” Attah said, recalling the words of Ghana’s Jerry Rawlings, who once hinted at a similar descent.
According to him, the root cause of Nigeria’s current challenges lies in the failure to uphold the vision of true federalism.
“We had envisioned Nigeria as a federation, complete with all the essential components of federalism. Instead, we have dismantled those components and replaced them with something entirely different,” the former governor stated.
Attah argued that the Rivers State crisis exemplifies constitutional disorder, noting that even the flawed 1999 Constitution was ignored in the manner in which the emergency was declared.
“First of all, we went as PANDEF and met the President. We assured him that Governor Fubara had fully agreed to cooperate with the Supreme Court judgment. But before anything could happen, a state of emergency was declared — even before a bill was taken to the National Assembly. We are just doing things not the way that even this faulty constitution prescribes,” he said.
On the local government elections in Rivers State, which saw the All Progressives Congress (APC) sweep 20 out of 23 councils, Attah dismissed the process as illegitimate.
“I’m not looking at it in terms of who won how many seats, but how was the election conducted? Even INEC said the election should not have been held when it was held because a certain minimum number of days must be given ahead of an election. We didn’t wait for those number of days,” he explained.
Attah stressed that Nigeria’s governance had become lawless, warning that the erosion of federal values and disregard for constitutional provisions were clear signs of deeper systemic failure.
“If everybody says this thing is wrong, this should not be done this way, and somebody goes ahead and does it and nothing happens, then maybe the devil has gradually taken over Nigeria. That is why we insist there must be a system to keep the devil out of Nigeria,” he declared.
The former governor concluded by calling for a return to genuine federalism, insisting that only by restoring the foundational principles of governance could Nigeria overcome its present crisis.
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