Nobel winner Prof. Wole Soyinka has blasted President Bola Tinubu’s move to slap a state of emergency on Rivers State, calling it a blow to Nigeria’s federal spirit. President Tinubu made the call on Tuesday, pointing to political unrest in the oil-rich state, and kicked out Governor Siminalayi Fubara, his deputy Ngozi Odu, and all state lawmakers for six months. He put retired navy boss Ibok-Ete Ibas in charge alone, but Soyinka’s not buying it, he says this top-down power grab isn’t how a federal country should be run.
Soyinka said Nigeria’s constitution hands the president way too much control, turning our federal setup into something more like a one-man show. “If this is legal, then we need to fix that constitution fast to make it truly federal,” he argued. He’s scratching his head over Tinubu’s choice, saying a real federal system wouldn’t let one person flip a state upside down like this, it’s against the whole idea of states having their say.
Soyinka’s been shouting for years about needing a big national meeting to rewrite Nigeria’s rulebook, and he’s at it again. “This system’s no good for a mixed-up place like ours, it’s not federal at heart,” he said.