Former Rivers State Commissioner for Empowerment and Employment Generation, Lelonu Nwibubasa, has strongly criticized President Bola Tinubu’s administration over the controversial appointment of Michael Odey, a Cross River State indigene, as chairman of the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC).

Speaking during an interview with ARISE NEWS on Friday, Nwibubasa said, “To us in Rivers State, it is an embarrassing moment, it is a complete show of disrespect to Rivers people by the president Tinubu’s administration. He has disregarded Rivers State so badly, pushing us to the background, forgetting our contribution to national growth and development and to the stabilisation of the polity of this country.”

The controversy erupted during a Senate committee screening on Tuesday when it was revealed that Odey hails from Cross River State — the same state as the sole administrator of Rivers State, Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas, who was appointed following the declaration of a controversial state of emergency in the state. This revelation triggered immediate outrage and raised questions about constitutional violations and disregard for the rights of Rivers people.

Nwibubasa further lamented the continued erosion of democratic structures and indigenous representation in the state’s governance.

“I am surprised that the state of emergency that was declared against all non-constitutional provision up till this day, three months after, the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has not considered that despite wide condemnations, appeals and criticism from well-meaning Nigerians, that he will resent on that decision, very unconstitutional decision. Rather, what we see is to add salt to injury by continually depleting all known government and political structures of Rivers people and replacing them with aliens.”

He also questioned the constitutional legitimacy of appointing non-indigenes to head state electoral bodies, warning that such actions set dangerous precedents.

“I want to ask where in Nigeria have we had an independent electoral commission of a state headed by someone from another state? This is a terrible precedent and so Nigerians shall also be asking if we can get chairmen of electoral commissions from other countries like Ghana and those doing well in their democracy to come and head that of Nigeria, since Rivers State has become the space where we will experiment these kinds of things,” he said.

Nwibubasa further criticised the National Assembly, calling it a “lame duck” for failing to reject the nomination despite acknowledging its irregularity.

“I think this is a joke taken too far and as Rivers people, I can tell you that what we see today in the entire jamboree of the National Assembly, seeing clearly that the man nominated is not from Rivers State, yet they went ahead to allow it pass because the President has sanctioned it. I can tell you that the National Assembly is lame duck because you cannot identify something that you have seen as an aberration and as lawmakers you could not come back to tell the president this cannot fly, that it has to be a Rivers indigene yet they went ahead after noting this aberration and put it in there that we have this bitter pill to swallow.”

Concluding his remarks, the former commissioner vowed that Rivers’ people would not remain silent. “This is unfortunate, and I can tell you that Rivers people are not happy. We will fight this thing constitutionally.” (AriseNews TV)