The State of Emergency proclaimed by President Bola Tinubu on the democratic structures in Rivers State has run into fresh roadblocks of contentions following plans by the Sole Administrator, retired Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas, to evolve another annual budget estimate for the state.
Ibas had recently announced his administration’s desire for a fresh 2025 fiscal estimate different from the contentious budget produced and passed by the minority lawmakers loyal to the deposed Governor Siminalayi Fubara.
With Fubara’s budget yet to be disposed off or allowed to run its course, the sole administration’s decision leaves the crisis-ridden state with two budgets in a fiscal year – albeit debatable.
The two are contentious as it stands – the first said to have been passed by a parliament with an illegal leadership and the other to be legislated by an authority with questionable legitimacy as the emergency rule remains challenged in the court.
If Ibas’ proposed budget is passed, there are concerns as to what becomes of the Appropriation Act at the expiration of the six-month rule. Last month, incumbent President Tinubu declared a state of emergency in Rivers State following a protracted political crisis but also appointed a sole administrator in the person of a retired military officer.
The attempt by the sole administrator to appoint unelected representatives and produce a new annual budget without the input of elected representatives has thrown up new contentions and stirred further confusion in the system.
While some stakeholders described the search for a fresh budget as an attempt to foist further helplessness on the people, others, including a former Minister of Information, Adebayo Shittu, and former aide to Ekiti State governor, Idowu Adelusi, affirmed that it was within the rights of the sole administrator to demand a new budget.
Adelusi, a former Chief Press Secretary (CPS) to the then Ekiti State governor, Ayodele Fayose, said the Rivers State administrator has the right to present a separate budget since he cannot operate the earlier budget produced by the suspended governor.
Speaking on the possible crisis of budget formulation and implementation due to the short-term mandate, Adelusi noted that even Fubara, whenever he is reinstated to office after six months, would also have to prepare another budget to be presented to the reinstated Assembly since the one he operated before has been declared illegal.
He recalled the 2007 instance, when a similar State of Emergency was declared in Ekiti, noting that “General Olurin, whom Obasanjo appointed, did not operate the budget of Fayose.
“Olurin sent his own budget to the House of Representatives for approval within six months.” Adelusi argued that those describing Ibas’s demand for a separate budget as illegal are not speaking from the point of law, adding: “Beyond the fact that Fubara and the lawmakers have been suspended, the pronouncement of the Supreme Court has also made whatever Fubara presented or operated as a budget before he was suspended as illegal, because he presented and passed the budget with only four members of the Assembly.
“Secondly, the sole administrator cannot just be spending Rivers money without approval from the National Assembly and or whichever authority puts him there, else he can be questioned by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) at the end of the six months.”
Aligning with Adelusi, another lawyer, Wahab Olawale, said President Tinubu’s speech declaring the state of emergency explicitly made it clear that the administrator would defer to the Federal Executive Council.
“The President, in his speech, said the Administrator will not make any new laws. He will, however, be free to formulate regulations as may be found necessary to do his job, but such regulations will need to be considered and approved by the Federal Executive Council and promulgated by the President for the state. This declaration has been published in the Federal Gazette, a copy of which has been forwarded to the National Assembly in accordance with the Constitution.
“With this, the Administrator can present a budget to the FEC subject to the approval of Mr. President,” he declared. Also, the erstwhile Minister of Communications, Adedayo Shittu, said the sole administrator could not operate Fubara’s budget since, according to him, the same was declared illegal by the apex court.
However, criticism against Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas’ plan for a fresh 2025 budget has continued to swell. A statesman, Chief Chekwas Okorie, said it was strange, unprecedented and an aberration for the emergency ruler to demand a fresh budget, stressing, “The sole aim of appointing a sole administrator in a state of emergency is to restore peace and order.
“Allowing a fresh budget for the state indicated no genuine intention to end the emergency rule in six months as announced. Whichever way the sole administrator runs the government, it could not have been different from the existing budget since they could not embark on existing projects except payment of salaries and other recurring government commitments.
“Even if they did not go into capital expenditures, a government had to be moving in terms of recurrent expenditures. To allow a new budget by a Sole administrator in Rivers State, which cannot be by appropriation, indicates that the president has no genuine intention to end this state of emergency in the next six months, and that is a very dangerous signal.
“I don’t know why he would allow this to happen. President Tinubu should not assure Nigerians that he is not making military administration an attractive option. He should try to do that by cutting short the state of emergency in Rivers State as quickly as possible and not allowing this aberration called budget presentation by the administrator.”
Okorie maintained that the sole administrator should be discouraged from embarking on capital projects and have the ones stand still for six months as a price that Rivers State would pay for the unfortunate development.
Also, a development expert and former professor of Communications and Development at Baze University, Prof. Arthur Martins-Aginam, faulted the search for a fresh budget estimate, noting that while “the executive prepares the budget, it has to be approved by the elected representatives of the people, which is the House of Assemblies.”
Reflecting on the emergency rule, Martins-Aginam stated: “So, the question is, is Ibas preparing a budget for six months, or is he preparing a budget for one year? If he is preparing for six months, it’s not even six months because two or three weeks have already passed. So, I don’t know, because that’s one of the confusions. I’m not a lawyer, so I can’t speak authoritatively about the law concerning this.
“But I think that’s one of those grey areas in the crisis. And the law sometimes has a lot of grey areas. Even under normal circumstances, the law usually has gaps, so we should not talk about situations that weren’t anticipated.”
The development expert, however, contended that being an emergency regime, it would have been proper for the sole administrator to have a contingency fund to run his affairs for the six months instead of going to the nitty-gritty of budget preparation, regretting the many gaps in the proclamation and appointment of the sole administrator.
His words: “For instance, the sole administrator, if you remember the original speech by the President at the declaration of the state of emergency. The President said Ibas cannot make laws but is answerable to the Federal Executive Council.
“So, in that case, you’re talking about, for instance, the Federal Executive Council being able to help guide him, whether concerning a contingency fund or even a budget and what have you.
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“But then, remember when the Senate and the House of Reps now approved the state of emergency, they virtually seemed to have clogged the powers or taken the powers away from the Federal Executive Council to themselves.
“So, the question is, who controls the resources? The sole administrator has limited powers to do anything. Who is he answerable to? Is he answerable to the Senate and the House of Representatives, who was going to set up a committee to help not only oversee the actions of the sole administrator but also to help with the reconciliation process so that at the end of the six months and the rest of them, supposedly, normalcy would have returned?”
“So, we don’t know what is happening. We don’t know who is in charge. We don’t understand the legal and policy framework based on which the sole administrator operates as we speak.”
Also, an economist with the State University, who pleaded anonymity, said budget preparations and presentation take lots of time, noting that the processes are not something to be done in a hurry or within less than six months.
He noted that as a policy and political analyst, “Ibas has only six months in office, while budget processes take at least four months.” He queried the time he (Ibas) has to carry out all the budget preparation and presentation stages.
The Economist added: “A budget is a financial document that guides incomes and expenditures of government, public and private sector; there are processes and stages involved in the budget, and they are preparation, formation of the budget committee, involvement of various ministries and parastatals.
“When the preparations are done, it goes back to the committee for review; then it is presented to the assembly. The assembly debates on the budget and organises a public debate where contributions from different stakeholders and citizens are made. ”
On the expected role of the National Assembly in the emergency rule, the Economist declared: “You cannot take a state budget to the National Assembly, it is wrong. The inputs are supposed to be made by various commissioners and Ministries. Who are the people to provide input in this case? Where are the Chairmen of all the boards and institutions?”
Also, a legal practitioner based in Port Harcourt, Wori Wori, argued that without Appropriation law, no state could make any expenses, remarking that the planned presentation of a fresh budget by Ibas was apt and timely.
He said: “Since the National Assembly oversees the duties of the state Assembly at the moment, the sole administrator has the right to present the budget to them.
“There’s nothing wrong with the sole administrator passing a new budget because every other law has been suspended with the State of Emergency in the state.”
