•Audu Ogbeh
Nigeria’s former Agriculture Minister Audu Ogbeh has faulted the voice vote that members of the National Assembly used to approve the emergency rule proclamation of President Bola Tinubu in Rivers State.
“Ayes and nays do not give us a clear picture of the position and the moral authority of individual senators or members of the House,” the 77-year-old said on Channels Television last night, hours after the Senate and the House of Representatives threw their weights behind the presidential proclamation.
“Nobody should hide under a shadow – if you want a vote, say so; if you don’t want it, say so but this ayes and nays is a camouflage, it doesn’t work.”
Referencing his time as the deputy speaker of the House of Assembly in Benue State from 1979 to 1982, Ogbeh said individual voting was adopted for crucial bills and motions.
Ogbeh, the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party between 2001 and 2005, said for future occasions, the lawmakers should explore technological tools and vote individually.
“When the matter came before the National Assembly for voting, I would like to suggest to the National Assembly to install a capacity in the future for individual voting which they can print out; not ayes and nays, because someday, 10 to 20 years from now, their children and grandchildren and researchers would like to find out how individuals voted on particular bills,” he said.
The Nigerian agriculture minister from November 2015 to May 2019 said rather than impose a state of emergency on the oil-rich state, the president should have called notable Nigerians to mediate in the matter and appeal to the warring parties to sheathe their swords.
He said, “Rivers State is bigger than any individual. We as a country and as countrymen are not interested in watching a situation where Rivers State and the entire Niger Delta will go up in flames.
“Nigeria has lived off the Niger Delta for 40 years. We appreciate what they have done for Nigeria because their oil has been fuelling our expenditure. Nobody wants a crisis in the Niger Delta.”
Tinubu, in a nationwide broadcast on Tuesday, March 18, 2025, imposed a state of emergency in Rivers State, suspended Governor Siminalayi Fubara and his deputy Ngozi Odu; as well as the Rivers State House of Assembly members for six months in the first instance.
Tinubu hinged his decision on Section 305 of the 1999 Constitution, saying he can’t continue to watch the political situation in Rivers escalate without taking any action.
The president immediately appointed and swore-in a retired naval chief, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (rtd), as the Sole Administrator for the oil-rich Niger Delta state.
