For a state that styles itself as the Fountain of Knowledge, it is not surprising that the imposition of emergency rule in Ekiti State would throw up an incisive discourse on the limits of presidential power.
President Olusegun Obasanjo�s declaration of emergency rule in Ekiti last Thursday and the consequent �suspension� from office of the impeached Governor and the State legislature will be readily tested in the National Assembly this week.
Given the general expression of rascality by the principal officers of the three arms of government in the state, Obasanjo�s action was largely hailed as a soothing relief to the macabre dance in Ekiti.
�All sides in the saga have been engaged in a cocktail of illegality and unconstitutionality and there is need to untangle all things,�� Senator Bassey Ewa-Henshaw (PDP Cross River) intoned as he declared that the action in Ekiti was �one state of emergency that will make sense.��
But beneath the immediate calm the declaration brought to the hitherto unease that had pervaded the state for most of Fayose�s noisy three-year reign is the lingering issue of the president�s capacity to do what he has done.
At issue is the suspension of the democratic structures in Ekiti and the claim by Obasanjo that he in conjunction with the Federal Executive Council would produce the rules and regulations that the administrator of the State would use during emergency rule.
In effect, the president is seen as breaching the exclusive law making responsibilities of the National Assembly.
When in May 2004 Obasanjo imposed emergency rule on Plateau State and suspended Governor Joshua Dariye and the state legislature from office, it was a novel experience since the country�s resort to the presidential system of democracy.
Before then, the only other instance of emergency rule in post-independence Nigeria was in Western Region when the prime minister appointed the then minister of health, Dr. Moses Majekodunmi as administrator of the Western Region.
In 2004, despite the almost total condemnation of Dariye�s seeming incapacity to handle the crisis in Plateau, several members of the National Assembly expressed reservations on the actions taken by the president.
Indeed, several senators were prepared to withhold support for the imposition of emergency rule then but eventually voted in support because Dariye simply did not have the courtesy of addressing or lobbying them despite repeated appointments made for him.
In the closed door session of the Senate where the Plateau issue was considered, a number of senators notably those belonging to the Alliance for Democracy (AD), had disputed Obasanjo�s capacity to suspend the governor and the House of Assembly.
Besides their fear of a breach of the Constitution was the anxiety of the AD senators that the PDP controlled Federal Government would soon turn the use of emergency rule as a political instrument to intimidate the opposition.
That fear was not only expressed by AD senators as a number of PDP senators equally expressed fear on the abuse of the Constitution.
But Senator Oserheimen Osunbor, one of the leading legal minds in the Senate, had argued persuasively that section 305 (3)(c) which gives the president extra-ordinary powers to act in the case of emergency allows him to appoint an administrator.
In 2004, only five senators, namely, Senators Uche Chukwumerije (PDP, Abia North), Tokunbo Afikuyomi (AD, Lagos State), Olorunnimbe Mamora (AD, Lagos State), James Kolawole (AD, Ekiti State) and Titus Olupitan (AD, Ondo State) voted against the Plateau emergency rule.
Though Kolawole on the basis of principle voted against the Plateau proclamation, he had been at the forefront of those denouncing the situation there. Irrespective of the party decision, the senators are likely to support Obasanjo�s action in Ekiti. Reason, Kolawole is from Ekiti State and one of the victims of the alleged misdeeds of Governor Ayo Fayose.
But it would not mean that there would be less opposition as the number of disenchanted senators in the PDP has swollen since the Plateau incident. Senator Ben Obi, one of the arrowheads of the opposition against the third term agenda would make good company with Chukwumerije and probably Senator Sule Danboyi who has reportedly defected to the Action Congress, AC, in opposing the proclamation.
Other senators citing what they allege to be the president�s role in the whole crisis may like to do him in. One of those who would cherish it is Senator Farouk Bello Bunza (ANPP, Kebbi Central).
�The crisis is self induced and if going by the statement of Mr. President that the impeachment is unconstitutional, then it flows from that statement that the only governor that Ekiti has is Fayose,�� Bunza told Sunday Vanguard at the weekend.
According to the Kebbi senator, Obasanjo could, if he had genuine concern, have aborted the whole crisis from the beginning and not have approved official protection for some of the protagonists.
Bunza�s assertion lends weight to the widely held belief that the president resorted to emergency rule because Mrs. Abiodun Olujumi, the suspended deputy governor of Ekiti who was his preferred candidate to succeed Fayose, was also swept away by the impeachment gale orchestrated by the House of Assembly.
All three senators from Ekiti State were until the proclamation of emergency rule in drawn out political battles with Fayose. Kolawole�s battle with the governor was understandable as they were in opposite political parties. However, for the two other senators elected on the platform of the PDP, Bode Olowoporoku and Clement Awoyelu, it was like a game of cat and mouse.
Fayose from the beginning did not show his hostility to Olowoporoku, a man revered by many Ekiti indigenes. Fayose was able with the connivance of some big party officials to engineer the expulsion of Olowoporoku from the PDP.
His relationship with Awoyelu, the Senate deputy minority whip and leader of the Southwest caucus was even if more tolerable but not any less discourteous of his acclaimed disregard for the elderly.
While working on his own re-election, Fayose had, according to sources, vowed to oppose a second term for Awoyelu in the Senate on the basis that he did not want any person older than forty-five years to aspire to elected public office from within Ekiti State .
As at weekend, no concrete form of opposition has come out against the proclamation as the majority of senators were outside Abuja and a large number outside the country.
The shape of the opposition to the proclamation would be discerned by Tuesday after two meetings by the 2007 Movement, the group of senators that formed the bulk of opposition to the president�s third term ambition.
Though many members of the group including Bunza would be hard put to express support for Fayose, they would be expected to call for an immediate return to the status quo and the use of due process in dealing with the Fayose problem.
Besides, there is the concern that allowing Obasanjo to get away with his game in Ekiti could embolden him in further constitutional adventures.
As Bunza said, �Today he has declared a state of emergency in Ekiti and suspended the State House of Assembly, what if tomorrow a state of emergency is declared in Nigeria, what would become of the senate?�
Another senator, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Sunday Vanguard that there was no basis for the president suspending a governor, his deputy or the House of Assembly from office.
�If we allow that, what if start fighting among ourselves in the Senate does that mean the president could come in and suspend the Senate or send in a military man to become the President of the Senate?��
The senator made reference to the United States where emergencies are time and again declared in some states but without effect on the democratic structures in those states.
However, many Senators notably those in the PDP, are unlikely to break ranks with the president on the issue as they would not like to be targeted ahead of the PDP primaries.
As it were, Fayose could well be on his own.