From East to South, North to West, Nigerians in their numbers have continued to commend President Jonathan for taking the audacious move. A good number of Nigerians spoke exclusive to Saturday Vanguard on the issue.

Jonathan is a true Democrat  – Hon.Uzo Azubuike, Chairman, Public Petitions Committee, House of Representatives

Uzo Azubuike

What he has done is in tandem with the provision of section 305. State of Emergency does not warrant the dismantling of democratic apparatus. President Goodluck Jonathan has shown that he is a committed democrat.

He has shown that he is not taking advantage of the security situation to pursue vendetta. What happened during President Olusegun Obasanjo’s time was part of the experiences of emerging democracy where there was military hang-over. State of Emergency is a peculiar situation.

It is not a political situation. We have economic emergency. We have environmental emergency. There are different types of emergency. In this situation, it is as a result of breakdown of law and order and it
means now that certain provisions of the constitution particularly Chapter 4 of the Constitution will be suspended.

That is the only section that will be affected, a situation where people’s freedom of movement, freedom of association, assembly and all that will now be curtailed because of the security challenge that is at hand. I think what President Goodluck Jonathan has done is highly commendable and the way and manner he did it should ever be appreciated.

It shows that he believes in democracy and that is what democracy has come to do. You know before now, the fear of people particularly, the political office holders in the declaration of state of emergency is that fear of losing their offices for situation they did not create.

But what President Jonathan had done is now to sieve the chaff from the corn and bring security challenges to minimum. It is in order and I highly commend him.

Well, I don’t know where the oppostion was coming from. Even before that announcement, I remember my colleagues from the North came to my seat in the chambers and we were saying that we should move that motion to get the President to declare  a state of emergency in those areas.

We were not happy. The national assembly cannot feel happy that Nigerians are losing  their lives in their hundreds, that our security agents have been maimed, that we now send officers to go and combat crime and they will be afraid of being killed, that inhibits their efficiency.

From what has happened, the general impression is that the militants, terrorists or whatever name you call them have shown superior fire-power.

I don’t know how else to describe it, making the people to lose confidence in the Police, Army and security agencies whereas what is happening is that these agencies are trying to observe the rule of law and ensure the safety of  innocent people which is the proper thing.

But these other people took advantage of it. We are worried that so many indigenes of Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, Nasarawa, Kaduna, virtually everywhere have lost their lives.

So, I don’t think that the President will just fold his arms and watch lives of Nigerians being wasted in that manner. The response of the President is a step in the right direction. It is better for one to live with abridged fundamental
right than to have your right in full and you die.

It is long overdue – Chief Dan Nwanyanwu, National Chairman, Labour Party

Yes, I support the state of emergency imposed by President Goodluck Jonathan. He has exercised his powers under section 305 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It is long overdue.

Dan Nwanyanwu

We expected it. Before then, we had called for total state of emergency whereby the President will take full control of the administration in the states concerned. But you know he is a politician.

He has consulted wisely. He has some information we don’t have. But what is important now is that the governors in those states are no longer the Chief Security Officers in their various states.

The military has taken over through the command of the Chief of Defense Staff. They have powers to stop, search, arrest, detain and take care of suspects under the rules of engagement.

What is important now is that all the efforts made by the Governors’ Forum to thwart this thing have failed because it appeared that the Governors’ Forum has seen themselves as a gang . In fact, it is a gang whose main
function now is to abuse the President.

The oppositions’ remark  is hypocritical and pretentious. Did they give  alternatives as to how to solve the problem? The answer is no. Of course, they have to talk because they want to talk and want to be seen to be opposition.

If this is opposition , then it  is a useless opposition. If you are criticizing, you must criticize constructively and you must proffer solution. What is the solution they have given? You cannot just oppose the state of emergency, ask the President to terminate the job of the Committee on Amnesty, then what is the alternative?

That is why it is easy to lose  credibility as the opposition party, that is  if they have not lost it. We don’t want to lose our credibility as opposition political party. This is the best thing to do under the present circumstances and there is no alternative to it.

This is a mixture of politics and constitutionality ——Osa Director
Lawyer, Journalist

Sincerely speaking, the declaration of State of Emergency  is long overdue. For me, it has been a sign of weakness  on the part of the President not to have done so before this time. However, that Obasanjo appointed military administrators in Ekiti and Plateau States does not mean  that is the way it is supposed to be done.

Not that Section 305, Subsection 1 of the 1999 Constitution as amended clearly stated that the political heads of the states affected by the state of emergency must be removed.

But I think what the President has done is to have a mixture of politics with constitutionality. He was careful that his action is not interpreted as moving against the opposition through the back door because two of those states where the state of emergency has been declared are ANPP states and of course you know that PDP has been a sledge hammer of which I don’t even exonerate them.

They have been very unfair to opposition in terms of trying to scuttle their merger arrangement. So, I think what he has done was trying to be careful not be seen as killing a fly with a sledge hammer.

So, to me, it is a welcome development that the state of emergency has been declared. It is also commendable that it was not blinded by politics to remove the heads of those governments who as a matter of necessity will act as a kind of zone interacting between the government and the presidency.

A step in the right direction – Festus Kayemo, Human Rights Lawyer

Festus Kayemo

The declaration of a State of Emergency by President Goodluck Jonathan in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa States as a result of months of ceaseless bloodshed and carnage by insurgents is a step that has long been overdue. The bloodletting in these states left the President with no other option but to take this extraordinary step.

This step must be appreciated in the light of the refusal of the insurgents to even dialogue with the Federal Government. The primary duty of any government is to protect lives and properties and it is only right that government should dig deep to finding  a lasting solution to this ceaseless carnage.

However, there are strong caveats we must issue to government in respect of this extraordinary action:

*That government must not in any way politicize this action. It is constitutionally correct that the President did not attempt to suspend the governors from office as nothing in Section 305 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) gives him such a power.

What Obasanjo did in the past in suspending governors through a declaration of a State of Emergency was illegal, unconstitutional, null and void.
Unfortunately, none of the Governors had the mettle to challenge him in court.

*That the military must be careful at all times not to trample on the fundamental rights of innocent citizens in these states, so that they do not become the scourge rather than solution.

* The President must follow all the steps required in Section 305 of the 1999 Constitution as amended to legitimize his action.

*That  the moment calm is restored, the troops must return to the barracks so as not to give the military unholy ideas about their role in our democracy.

* We all owe it a duty to assist government to restore law and order in the country. It is for our overall benefit.

Bottom line

Analysts in their numbers believe that the encomiums by many Nigerians can only be reciprocated by the Government if the peace which has since eluded the affected states is restored.

The same expectation is also wished from so many other troubled areas in the country where acts of terror, kidnapping and criminalities exist. It is only then that Nigerians will heave  a sigh of relief.