Rivers State House Of Assembly And Its Many Inconsistencies

Since the beginning of the political quagmire in Rivers State which saw the unsuccessful impeachment attempt by a section of the Rivers State House of Assembly, down to the dispute over the speakership of the house; the declaration of the seats of some lawmakers vacant, and series of midnight sittings by some of the lawmakers; the Rivers State House of Assembly has been the epicentre of the political crisis in the state.
In what has seemed like a vendetta move, this present assembly whose membership is largely constituted by members of the previous assembly, has proposed and passed bills to stifle the powers of the executive.
On December 14, 2023, the Rivers State House of Assembly passed the Rivers State House of Assembly Funds Management (Financial Autonomy) Bill, 2023, a bill that was intended to give the assembly more autonomy from the executive. The Assembly also passed the Rivers State Local Government Law, No. 5 of 2018 (Amendment) Bill, 2023 which also sought to give the Local Government more autonomy.
On January 22, the house sat again and passed the Bill to amend the Rivers State Traditional Rulers’ Law No. 4 of 2015, and repealed the Rivers State Advertisement and Use of State-owned Property (Prohibition) Law No. 7 of 2022.
On January 26, 2024, the assembly went ahead to override the Governor’s assent on the four bills it had earlier passed.
Merely looking at these bills passed by the assembly on face value, one might think that the legislators are acting for the general interest of democracy but a proper dissecting of their actions will show you that at the very least, these are self-serving actions fuelled by political vendetta and influenced by an unseen hand.
One might wonder why the 10th Assembly has sought to modify the Rivers State Local Government Law when about a year ago, majority of its members were part of the 9th Assembly that voted against Local Government Autonomy in the then constitutional amendment. Rivers State was the only state in South South that voted NO to the proposed amendment when about 27 states voted YES to it.
To show their inconsistencies and insincerity of action, just days after the Assembly had amended the Rivers State Local Government Law, and went on to veto the governor’s assent, they sat yet again to propose a new bill seeking to amend the same law they had amended and passed. the back and fourth cum afterthought approach is already outing their intent.
Yet again In 2022, most members of this present 10th Assembly (inclusive of all the principal officers) while serving in the 9th Assembly, passed the Rivers State Advertisement and Use of State-owned Property (Prohibition Law) that invoked stringent measures for members of the opposition to utilize state-owned properties for their activities. Fast forward to 2024, the same law is being repealed.
The recent desire by the Assembly Members to elongate the tenure of elected LGA Chairman is one that goes against the core tenets of our democracy and the type of federalism we practice.
The roles and relationships between the three tiers of government in our democracy are clearly spelled out and protected in our constitution and can only be altered through a constitutional amendment just Section 9 Subsection 2 of the 1999 Constitution deals with the process by which any amendment of the Constitution can be carried.
While some persons might be tempted to term the actions of the Assembly as democracy at play, in a real sense it can best be referred to as pseudo-democracy as it is self-serving and engineered by the unseen hand.