By Prof Mondy Gold
What kind of leader watches silently as democracy is hacked apart in broad daylight? What kind of President, once hailed as a defender of the Constitution, now cloaks himself in shameful silence while unelected impostors desecrate the will of the people?
Mr. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the latest ruling from the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt, which barred the embattled Military Sole Administrator, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas, from appointing political surrogates to oversee the 23 local government areas in Rivers State, is far more than a routine judicial intervention. It is a constitutional alarm bell that is loud and urgent and strikes at the very heart of our democracy, and yet, you have chosen to ignore this signal at the peril of your legacy and the soul of the Nigerian republic. This moment demands leadership, not indifference. It calls for the defense of democratic institutions, not the perception that implies complicity. History and the Nigerian people are watching.
Your Excellency, with the utmost humility and unwavering respect for your esteemed office, I am deeply perplexed by the apparent restriction placed on our direct line of communication. Nevertheless, as a loyal and law-abiding citizen, and in my capacity as one of the representatives of the Ijaw Diaspora, I respectfully appeal for the restoration of that channel. Permit me to be unequivocal: I do not write merely as a distant onlooker, but as a devoted patriot who understands all too well the cost of silence. I speak as a son of the Niger Delta, as a scholar, and as a committed democrat, one who continues to uphold the belief that constitutional governance is not a privilege dispensed at the discretion of power, or not a favor handed down by men in Abuja, but a sacrosanct right enshrined in the very foundation of our national covenant.
What the Military Sole Administrator, Ibas has attempted in Rivers State, under your watch, is a direct affront to the very spirit of our federal structure. The local government system, enshrined in the Nigerian Constitution, was not designed to be the playground of appointed courtiers. It is the closest tier of governance to the Nigerian people. To defile it with the appointment of unelected Military Sole Administrators is to spit in the face of every man and woman who has ever cast a vote in this country.
Mr. President, your silence has become complicity.
With the deepest respect, Your Excellency, permit me to ask—where was your voice when the sanctity of the rule of law was being bartered in plain sight within the hallowed chambers of the Rivers State House of Assembly? Where was your principled stand when individuals lacking the legitimacy of the people’s mandate were installed into positions of authority enabled by questionable executive proclamations that defied constitutional order? And now, with a Federal High Court having laid bare this troubling charade for what it truly is—a grievous affront to our democratic fabric, where is the moral leadership the nation longs for at this critical hour?
This is not the Nigeria we were promised. This is not the democratic vision you so passionately championed during your June 12 sermons and pro-democracy rhetoric. Your legacy risks becoming a contradiction, one that history will remember not for what you built but for your inaction that allowed the foundation to fall apart.
The court’s ruling, secured through the tireless efforts of the PILEX Centre for Civic Education led by Courage Msirimovu, is a brave reminder that Nigeria still breathes through the veins of ordinary citizens who dare to resist. If those in power will not defend the Constitution, then the people must do it for them.
Your Excellency, with deep respect for your office and an even deeper love for our great nation, I write not in anger but with the ache of a concerned son of the soil. I am an Ijaw son, a scholar, and a patriot who has spent his life believing that Nigeria can rise above its scars. Let us not deceive ourselves; we have seen this kind of betrayal before and the price of silence. Those of us who remember the dark days of General Sani Abacha’s regime have not forgotten how Sole Administrators became the battering rams of dictatorship, unelected figures who ruled not by consent but by command, choking the will of the people behind titles they did not earn. What we are witnessing today feels hauntingly familiar. The same discredited script is being played again, but now cloaked in democratic robes. It is a bitter irony, and yes, it is deeply un-Nigerian.
Your Excellency, I do not speak from a place of bitterness, but of burden. If this orchestrated chaos is allowed to fester, if those who trample our Constitution are left unchecked, then it is not just they who will be judged harshly. It will be you as well, our President, our leader. You will be seen not as a neutral arbiter, but as a silent enabler. And silence, in times like this, once again is complicity.
You see, sir, you cannot wave the flag of democracy abroad while letting it be torn to shreds at home. You cannot ask Nigerians to be loyal to the dream of the nation while empowering those who are turning that dream into a nightmare. I appeal to the statesman in you. I appeal to the father in you. I appeal to the patriot I still believe you are. The people are watching. Our children are watching. History is watching.
And if there is still any truth in our pledge to One Nigeria, let this be the moment you show that it is the rule of law, not the rule of men, that guides your leadership. Let us not forget, Mr. President, if you fail to rein in this madness, then you, too, become a custodian of tyranny. You, too, will bear responsibility for the erosion of trust, the collapse of democratic values, and the unraveling of our fragile federal unity. You cannot preach democracy in foreign capitals while democracy dies at your doorstep. You cannot demand patriotism from the governed while rewarding lawlessness among the governing. And you most certainly cannot expect history to be kind when your presidency is marked not by progress but by paralysis.
I call on all lovers of liberty, all sons and daughters of justice, to rise in defense of what remains of our democratic experiment. We must not let the disease of autocracy spread further into the bones of our nation. The judiciary has spoken. The people have spoken. Now, it is time for the President to act or forever hold the burden of national betrayal.
Nigeria deserves better.
The world is watching.
And posterity is taking notes.
President, Ijaw Diaspora Council and Amadabo of Ijaw Diaspora
Former Chairman, BOT of National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) USA
Fellow, Chartered Institute of Leadership and Governance
United States Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient
The current saga in Rivers State is blatantly wrong and unfairness to the governor and the people. How can one man control or wanting to claim the state for his personal property and trade / batter for personal interest? When will the expect-governor understand that his term in office has ended and he needs to move on and to give the new occupants a chance?
It is baffling that the checks and balances of government has been eroded and mangled in one office to oppress the people. In current state of Nigeria no one dare to speak out with threats and fear of impunity.
The elected members continue with their plum salaries, others perks while all Nigerians suffer even businesses suffering, when and where will current situation end?
What has Nigeria come to, in the face of all the killings, destruction of life, properties and displacement of people, who is the herm of government, anyone responsible to keep the peace and order of our nation?
We want the tye return of governor and his elected officials.
We want the recall of the sole administrator, he serves no purpose in Rivers State. He can be posted to the trouble areas of the country.