The President has no intention whatsoever to take over the governance of Rivers State.
The state of emergency in Rivers State would be lifted by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu once normalcy is restored, according to Mohammed Idris, Minister of Information and National Orientation who confirmed that Tinubu is still determined to see that Rivers State quickly regains full democratic rule.
“As soon as he assesses that sanity has returned to Rivers State, he will ensure the restoration of all democratic structures in that state,” minister Idris said in an interview with The Nation.
Idris made it clear that Tinubu has absolutely no intention of dominating the administration of Rivers State in any way.
According to him, people who were responsible for designing the constitution of Nigeria had anticipated the possibility of such a circumstance occurring, which is why they prepared for it.
Idris said, “The President will not wait a minute longer than necessary. The President has no intention whatsoever to take over the governance of Rivers State. He has no intention to be or to appoint a governor for Rivers State.
“The way democracy is designed in this country is that the three arms of government must work together, and one will be checking the other.
“So, we cannot have just the executive functioning and say we have a functional democracy. We didn’t have that, and therefore, the President had to act.
“Those who designed our constitution envisaged that this kind of situation could arise, and that was why they made the provision for it. The President relied on the constitution to exercise his powers and take action.”