Tambuwal Restates That NASS Failed In Ratifying Tinubu’s Emergency

Senator Aminu Waziri Tambuwal has reiterated that the National Assembly failed to follow the Constitution in ratifying President Bola Tinubu’s state of emergency in Rivers State.

Naijaonpoint reported that Tambuwal, on Sunday, said the necessary two-thirds majority—73 out of 109 senators, was not reached in ratifying Rivers’ state of emergency in the Senate.

Speaking, on Monday, at Emeka Ihedioha‘s 60th birthday democracy colloquium, the former speaker of the House of Representatives stressed that the leadership of the 10th National Assembly failed to follow the constitution, its rules and precedents concerning a state of emergency.

The former Sokoto State Governor said the problem with Nigeria’s democracy depends on the people in charge of the system at a particular time.

His words: “Here in this room, seated,  former President Olusegun Obasanjo. Under his regime, the state of emergency was declared in a number of states. The National Assembly, Anyim Pius Anyim, the President of the Senate then, and, of course, Senator Ken Nnamani, Senator David Mark. They all worked. Then, of course, House Speaker Masari, Speaker Ette and myself (Tambuwal), we all ensured that two-thirds majority of members of both chambers passed the emergencies in those times. Each member had to vote.

“And we know that parliament is guided by the Constitution, by its rules, and by precedents. In this same National Assembly, we have the same Constitution in a way, under Section 305, it has not been amended since 1999. We have our Senate rules, and we have precedents of how two-thirds were able to be established in those instances where emergency was declared in Plateau, emergence was declared in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe. And we were led by the Constitution. What happened last week? So I still insist that we need to check out the operators of our system.”