Ekwensu cannot render account to or romance mammy water
By Dr. Tonye Clinton Jaja
On a lighter note!!!
Dear Sole Administrator of Rivers State, Vice-Admiral Ibokette Ibas (Retired),
By way of introduction, my name is Dr. Tonye Clinton Jaja. I have been a lawyer for 21 years now.
I am writing to provide free legal advice based on the piece of legislation that appointed your good self as the Sole Administrator of Rivers State.
My professional advice is based on my expertise as a lawyer who is both a legal scholar and practitioner in the field of legislative law for 19 years out of my 21 years as a lawyer.
Please kindly confirm my credentials from Prof. Ibibia Worika, who currently serves as your Secretary of your government. he was my former law lecturer and later my fellow law lecturer at the Faculty of Law, University of Port Harcourt.
To begin with, you must have noticed that I did not address your good self as “Your Excellency”, this is because it is not a honorific that appears anywhere in the legislation that appointed your good self as Sole Administrator of Rivers State. The only honorific that appears there is “Vice-Admiral”, but even the dignity of that honorific is quickly defeated and deflated by the words “retired”.that appears in brackets!!!
The said legislation is the State of Emergency (Rivers State) Proclamation, 2025.
For the avoidance of any doubts, hereunder, I reproduce Section 3 of the said legislation, which states as follows:.
“Appointment of Administrator:
The State shall for the duration of the emergency, be administered by Vice Admiral Ibokette Ibas (Rtd), as Administrator, who shall operate on the basis of such Regulations that may, from time to time, be issued by me (President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-PBAT).
As you can see from the.wordings of the above named legislation, in your capacity as Sole Administrator, you are answerable only to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria-PBAT.
Therefore, the summons and/or invitation issued today, 16th April 2025, by the Ad-hoc Committee on Rivers State Oversight, House of Representatives ought to be addressed to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It is reported that your good self is to physically attend to the said Committee on Thursday, 17th April 2025.
In the hierarchy of laws, any laws enacted by the National Assembly pursuant to Section 305 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, carry more weight than other genres or species of laws or Regulations.
In this instance, the National Assembly alleges that the said Ad-hoc Committee on Oversight of the Rivers State was enacted by a Resolution of the House of Representatives, National Assembly.
However, a Resolution of the House of Representatives, National Assembly, is subordinate to the legislation which specifically appointed your good self as Sole Administrator.
In the event that, the House of Representatives, National Assembly, wanted you to be answerable to them, via the said Ad-Committee, they ought to have specifically added such a provision as a Section to the said legislation-State of Emergency (Rivers State) Proclamation, 2025.
Alternatively, they could have added a Section that confers power upon them (House of Representatives) to subsequently enact subsidiary legislation under the said principal legislation, namely the State of Emergency (Rivers State) Proclamation, 2025.
Another circumstance under which the House of Representatives, National Assembly could have had powers to summon your good self as the Sole Administrator of Rivers State is in the event that the budget for your office is specifically listed inside the Appropriation Act of 2025.
Unfortunately, the finances for your office as Sole Administrator is not listed under the Appropriation Act, 2025, since your office is funded solely by the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, it is the President (PBAT) that the National Assembly ought to summon in this instance for purposes of oversight.
This is consistent with the powers conferred by Sections 89 and 129 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which are summarised as follows:
“The Nigerian National Assembly has the constitutional power to summon anyone, including those who receive funds from the national budget, to give evidence or produce documents during investigations. This power is rooted in their ability to investigate and oversee the disbursement of public funds.”
This power of the National Assembly and it’s Committees to summon or invite anyone that receives public funds (as part of exercise of its oversight function) is recognised by the Supreme Court of Nigeria in the landmark case of El Rufai v House of Representatives, (2003) NWLR (Pt 173) 162 ·
Respectfully, Sole Administrator, Sir, based upon the foregoing, you ought to politely decline the said summons and/or invitation and refer the said Ad-Committee of the House of Representatives to channel their summons to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, PBAT.
On a final note, considering that your office is a special role created by an act of the legislation which relied on a specific Section 305 of the Nigerian Constitution, you are on the same footing as the House of Representatives itself which is also a creation of a specific Section of the same Nigerian Constitution.
Therefore, as we would say in the spirit realm “Ekwensu (the name of the devil in Igbo language) cannot be made to render account to mammy water (the water goddess) because both of them are both principalities in their different jurisdictions.
While the Ekwensu is in charge of the evil spirits that operate on land, mammy water is in charge of the evil spirits that operate inside the rivers and other aquatic environments!!!
The House of Representatives is in charge of the evil spirits that operate at the federal level, while the Sole Administrator is the monitoring spirit in charge of monitoring the evil spirits operating within Rivers State, who are trying to blow up oil pipelines!!
I hope and pray you have found my legal advice useful (please kindly disregard the comic aspects) !!!
Yours faithfully,
Dr. Tonye Clinton Jaja,
16th April 2025.
The views expressed by contributors are strictly personal and not of Law & Society Magazine.
