BASHIR Ahmad, a former media aide to ex-Nigerian president, Muhammadu Buhari, has claimed that the Nigerian Senate passed the Emergency Powers (Repeal and Re-enactment) Bill 2018 into law in February 2018.
He claimed on the X platform that the passed bill grants the Nigerian president the authority to suspend an elected State Governor or Local Government Chairman during an emergency period.
His post read thus:
”In February 2018, the Nigerian Senate passed the Emergency Powers (Repeal and Re-enactment) Bill 2018. The Act says, “The President may, with the approval of the National Assembly, suspend a State Governor or the Local Government Chairman in an emergency area during an emergency period.”
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The claim has garnered over 400,000 views, with more than 500 reposts and comments plus over 1,700 likes as of April 13, 2025.
CLAIM
Emergency Power Act 2018 grants the Nigerian president the power to suspend state governor or council chairman.
THE FINDINGS
Findings by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is FALSE, as the bill was only passed in the Nigerian Senate and has not been signed into law by the nation’s president.
Recall that on March 18, 2025, the Nigerian president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, declared a state of emergency in Rivers State. In his nationwide broadcast that day, he also suspended the state governor, Siminalayi Fubara, his deputy and the state lawmakers. This sparked a constitutional debate, as politicians, legal experts and citizens wade in.
Note that Section 305 of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution allows the President to declare a state of emergency under specific circumstances, such as threats to public order, public safety. However, the Constitution does not explicitly grant the President the authority to suspend elected state officials, including governors and state lawmakers, during such declarations.
But Ahmad claimed that the Emergency Act (repeal and re-enactment) Bill 2018 gives the president the power to remove a governor or local government chairman with the approval of the National Assembly.
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A check through the Nigerian Senate’s records and official legislative reports from 2018 revealed that after the Emergency Powers (Repeal and Re-enactment) Bill 2018, sponsored by Senator David Umaru (Niger East), was introduced for consideration, it was subsequently passed into law by the Senate after the third reading.
However, the bill was not signed into law by any Nigerian president, even though it sought to repeal and replace the existing Emergency Powers Act of 1961. The bill outlined the scope of presidential powers during national emergencies. Though it also grants the Nigerian president the authority to suspend a State Governor or Local Government Chairman, it was never assented to by the then president, Muhammadu Buhari.
Further examination of Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution (as amended) shows that only the National Assembly has the power to remove an elected governor, and this can only be done through an impeachment process as outlined in Sections 188 and 189 of the constitution. Thus, the claim that the President can unilaterally suspend elected officials contradicts constitutional provisions.
“In the 320 sections of the Nigerian Constitution, nowhere is the president empowered to remove the governor of a state or suspend the governor of a state, suspend the deputy governor of a state, suspend the legislators in a state,” Femi Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) said in an interview with Channels TV recently.
At an inaugural lecture event in 2008, Professor Itse Sagay, a professor of law and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, said: “The whole tenor of section 11 of the Constitution (which is the section containing all the powers exercisable during an emergency shows that an emergency declaration is intended to be a cooperative endeavor between the federal government and state government, whose organs, governors, House of Assembly and judiciary are fully functioning.”
This was also corroborated in a legal research work by an Edo-based lawyer, Bright E. Oniya. Similarly, an article published in a Beijing Law Review journal in December 2019, notes that: “The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 1966 in Article 4 empowers state parties to declare state of emergency subject to certain rules which do not include dissolution of democratic structures in a country.”
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In addition, The FactCheckHub spoke to Muhammed Adam, a Nigerian human rights lawyer fondly called “foundational Nupe lawyer” on X (formerly Twitter). He confirmed that the bill was never assented to by any Nigerian president, adding that it was only a bill.
“There is no such law in existence, it is just a bill,” Adam said.
THE VERDICT
The claim that the Emergency Power Act 2018 grants the Nigerian president the power to suspend state governor or council chairman is FALSE; there is no such law currently, as the bill was never signed into law by any Nigerian president. Also, the president lacks power to suspend any elected state or local council official, according to the amended 1999 Nigerian Constitution.
 Bill 2018 into law in February 2018.){kind=link}