Rivers: Voice Vote By Senators, Reps A Camouflage, Says Ogbeh 

Audu Ogbeh, the former minister of agriculture in Nigeria, criticizes the voice vote used to approve President Bola Tinubu’s declaration of emergency rule in Rivers State.

The 77-year-old said on Channels Television’s Politics Today program, “Ayes and nays do not provide us with a clear picture of the position and the moral authority of individual senators or members of the House,” adding that “the Senate and the House of Representatives thrown their weight behind the presidential proclamation.”

No one should hide under a shadow; however, this ayes and noyes is a covert tactic, and it doesn’t work. If you want a vote, say so.

Ogbeh cited his time as the Benue State House of Assembly deputy speaker from 1979 to 1982, when he claimed that individual voting was used to pass important legislation and motions.

NASS Approves Tinubu’s Rivers Emergency Rule Despite Opposition.

The lawmakers should look into technological tools and cast their own ballots for future occasions, according to Ogbeh, the Peoples Democratic Party’s National Chairman between 2001 and 2005.

I want to ask the National Assembly to install a capacity for individual voting in the future, not just ayes and noyes, because their children and grandchildren and researchers would like to find out how people voted on particular bills, he said.

The president should have called prominent Nigerians to speak out about the situation and urge the conflicting parties to shear their swords, according to the agriculture minister of Nigeria from November 2015 to May 2019.

Rivers State, he said, “is bigger than any individual.” We as citizens and as citizens do not want to witness a conflict in which the entire Niger Delta and Rivers State will burn.

The Niger Delta has been used by the country for 40 years. Because of how much of their oil has been used to fund our expenses, we are grateful for what they have done for Nigeria. Nobody wants a Niger Delta crisis.

In a nationwide broadcast on Tuesday, March 18, 2025, Tinubu declared a state of emergency in Rivers State, suspended governor Siminalayi Fubara, his deputy Ngozi Odu, and first-time governor Siminalayi Fubara from the House of Assembly.

According to Tinubu, who relyed on Section 305 of the 1999 Constitution to support his position, he can’t continue to observe the political deterioration in Rivers.

Source: Channels TV