On December 15, 2025, the Supreme Court of Nigeria delivered a death blow to Nigerian democracy. In a ruling that will be remembered as judicial complicity in authoritarianism, the Court upheld President Tinubu's declaration of a State of Emergency in Rivers State, which suspended the elected governor and state assembly for six months.
This is not a legal ruling. This is a coup by judicial fiat.
The implications are terrifying: any President can now suspend any state government on the flimsiest of pretexts. The will of the people, expressed through the ballot box, can be overturned by executive decree and rubber-stamped by a compliant judiciary.
Rivers State was not in a state of war. There was no natural disaster. The "emergency" was manufactured to settle political scores. And the Supreme Court, which should be the guardian of our democracy, has become its executioner.
The NLM condemns this ruling in the strongest possible terms.
We call for: - Immediate constitutional amendments to prevent such abuse of emergency powers. - The impeachment of justices who participated in this travesty. - Mass mobilization to defend democracy against federal overreach.
If we allow this precedent to stand, no elected official in Nigeria is safe. Today it is Rivers State. Tomorrow it could be your state. The time to resist is now.
