As Ibas takes his leave and Fubara returns, by Ikechukwu Amaechi

It is no longer a matter of conjecture. As Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, haughtily announced on August 30, President Bola Tinubu, on Wednesday, September 17, 2025, announced the end of the six-month emergency rule he imposed on Rivers State on March 18.

Unlike the emergency rule proclamation which he made via a national broadcast, the president ended the ill-advised political manoeuvre via a statement he personally signed, expressing satisfaction that the measure had achieved its objectives.

Claiming that it would have been a colossal failure on his part as president not to have made the proclamation, Tinubu declared: “I am happy today that, from the intelligence available to me, there is a groundswell of a new spirit of understanding, a robust readiness, and potent enthusiasm on the part of all the stakeholders in Rivers State for an immediate return to democratic governance. This is undoubtedly a welcome development for me and a remarkable achievement for us. I therefore do not see why the state of emergency should exist a day longer than the six months I had pronounced at the beginning of it.

“It therefore gives me great pleasure to declare that the emergency in Rivers State of Nigeria shall end with effect from midnight today. The Governor, His Excellency Siminalayi Fubara, the deputy governor, Her Excellency Ngozi Nma Odu, and members of the Rivers State House of Assembly and the speaker, Martins Amaewhule, will resume work in their offices from 18 September 2025.”

On the face value, that would seem to have brought the Rivers State political nightmare to an end. But has it? I doubt. And it would be naïve for anyone to assume that the battle is over even if the returning governor Siminalayi Fubara decides to continue playing the fool because the battle, in the first place, was about the political soul of the oil-rich state and who controls its fiscal war chest.

For the purpose of context, let me recap how it all began. Listing a plethora of what was basically the political grievances of Wike as woes that have befallen the State, Tinubu, on Tuesday, March 18, invoked the provision of section 305 of the 1999 Constitution to declare a state of emergency in Rivers. I dare say no one was fooled. Those who hatched the plot only lied to themselves.

To all intents and purposes, it was a presidential overreach, an egregious act of executive impunity, unprecedented in its illegality. Accusing the Rivers State governor, Siminalayi Fubara, and his deputy, Mrs Ngozi Odu, of failing to make a request to him to issue a state of emergency proclamation as required by section 305(5) of the 1999 Constitution, Tinubu said it had become inevitably compelling for him to suspend both and all elected members of the House of Assembly of Rivers State “for an initial period of six months.”

But Fubara couldn’t have requested Tinubu to declare a state of emergency over what was clearly a contrived political crisis engineered by the president’s closest political ally right now. It will be tantamount to a rat questing for justice in a court of cats.

Having proclaimed the emergency rule, Tinubu appointed Vice Admiral Ibokette Ibas (Rtd) as sole administrator to take charge in the interest of the good people of Rivers State.

For emphasis, the president further said: “The administrator will not make any new laws. He will, however, be free to formulate regulations as may be found necessary to do his job, but such regulations will need to be considered and approved by the Federal Executive Council and promulgated by the president for the state.”

It was obvious to every discerning observer that the whole idea was to hand back the levers of power, particularly at the grassroots, which seems to have slipped away from Wike back to him. A predetermined goal. In other words, Tinubu worked from the answer to the question.

So, the state of emergency was to continue for as long as it takes for the mission to be accomplished, which explains Tinubu’s “for an initial period of six months” caveat, a point which Wike made so loudly on Saturday, August 30, in Rumepirikom, Ward 9, Unit 007, Obio/Akpo Local Government Area after voting in the Ibas superintended council elections.

“Having done this, then the coast is clear for the state of emergency to be lifted, meaning that the local government has representatives, the state government has its own elected representatives, so we are good to go,” Wike crowed. “I do know that by September 18, the state of emergency will expire, and that would mean that the state governor and state assembly will come back to their job, and we will have a government at the grassroots level.”

It is for this purpose that Tinubu, who departed Nigeria on September 4, and was expected to remain in Europe until later this week, returned to Abuja on Tuesday evening after cutting short what was initially scheduled as a 10-day leave to Paris and London.

Not that where he is at any given time ever mattered. After all, we were told that his was a “working leave” – whatever that means – and we have been told times without number that he can govern the country from anywhere in the world, or any other planet for that matter. But, perhaps, having finished doing the needful in France, which is the real reason for his incessant “working vacations,” Tinubu, in appreciation of the significance of lifting the state of emergency on home soil, hurried back home.

But now that Fubara has returned to office, what next? Let nobody make any mistake about this: questions of what has been achieved and in whose interest the proclamation was made will continue to agitate the minds of all well-meaning Nigerians.

The president’s loud protestations to the contrary notwithstanding, the primary beneficiary of this political shenanigan is the mastermind of the crisis himself who Tinubu has wittingly handed back the levers of power in Rivers as a quid-pro-qui for electoral “victory” in the oil-rich state in 2027. 

Going forward, a comeback Fubara will be thoroughly diminished that even the perfunctory duty of preparing a budget for the state will be done from outside his “office.” Former military president, General Ibrahim Babangida, once reminded Nigerians that he was not only in government but also in power. As Fubara returns to the Brick House, seat of Rivers State government, he will neither be in government nor power and there is no way he will do right by the people without clashing, once again, with the two political deities – Tinubu and Wike.

Those who masterminded this state of emergency gambit couldn’t have gone to this extent only to hand over power to him in any shape or form whatsoever. Having zero power and unable to take any decision without first getting permission from his tormentors in Abuja, Fubara will not be able to exercise any authority expected of elected leaders in his exalted position.

But the worst hit with be Rivers State and its longsuffering people who have been made to hold the wrong end of the developmental stick since this battle of political elephants ensued.

In the six months that Ibas has been on the saddle, development has been halted, literally.

Sadly, all these happened because Nigerians slept on their political rights. As Wike must have, characteristically, told a dithering Tinubu that the heavens will not fall if he declared a state of emergency, indeed, the heavens didn’t fall in the last six months and the State is worst for it.

Truth be told, contrary to Tinubu’s egregious claims, Rivers State is worse off today – politically, socially and economically – than it was six months ago. And the people who kept quiet in the face of tyranny have themselves to blame.

Blaming an unfortunate Fubara is an act of mischief. And for those whose only antidote to the escalating political impunity of the Tinubu presidency is “God forbid,” nothing stops the president from re-imposing the state of emergency if Fubara dares to walk away from the terms of agreement of surrender he signed with his tormentors on behalf of the hapless people of Rivers State.

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