Daily Trust Editorial, Wednesday September 24, 2025
Last week Wednesday, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu lifted the six months state of emergency which he imposed on Rivers State on March 18 2025, to pave the way for the restoration of democratic rule. Citing disturbing security reports and the collapse of governance, the president had, along with the emergency rule, also suspended for an initial period of six months, the governor of the state Siminalayi Fubara, the deputy governor and the entire membership of the Rivers State House of Assembly. He also appointed a retired naval officer, Vice Admiral Ibok Ette Ibas, as the Sole Administrator. With the cessation of the emergency rule in the state, the suspended officers have resumed in their respective offices.
It would be recalled that the emergency rule was preceded by a three-pronged prolonged face-off between the governor, Fubara, his predecessor in office and now Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, as well as a majority of members of the House of Assembly who were fighting an unmistakable proxy war on behalf of Wike. Of note was the unrelenting meddlesomeness by Wike, who spared no effort in citing his interest in retaining his political structure even when out of office as governor. This situation led to several glitches in governance with the residents of the state remaining short-changed as far as governance was concerned.
However, with the end of emergency rule, it is expected that normalcy should return, even as the returning governor, Fubara has also committed himself to the same expectation. In a broadcast to the state soon after his resumption, he called on all stakeholders in the state to put behind the past instances of strife and “bury the hatchet”, so that good governance as well as development can resume. We at the Daily Trust welcome this as a sign that a new beginning may have dawned on the state. After all, the factors that spawned the eventual crises were not acts of nature, but the play out of personal differences that became amplified through the resort to statutory privileges by the principal actors. Hence, an attitudinal change by all the actors is a key to resolving the situation, and allowing the state make progress. It is also on that premise that the call by the governor remains well placed.
However, the situation also offers significant lessons not only for Rivers State but for the entire country. Firstly, the crisis in Rivers State was not just a low point for the state but a qualified national tragedy which should not be allowed to re-occur in future. The entire episode constitutes a pollution to democracy, and therefore an antithesis to the country’s democratic heritage. In a world of cause and effect where easily overlooked leadership actions, inactions and slips often attract unintended consequences, the entire sordid drama of emergency rule in Rivers State should not have occurred if discretion had prevailed on the part of the principal actors on whom the burden of good governance rested. This contention derives from the circumstance whereby a political unrest in a state was escalated through manifest pressures from factors at the federal tier of governance. This is a tendency which if not adequately addressed, is capable of further entrenching godfatherism in the country’s political space.
With respect to the build up to the crises, a candid review points to the fact that there were alternative approaches for resolving same at every point, which were not explored. This is just as there were the capacity and opportunities for resolving such differences between the aggrieved parties, if caution had prevailed. It is even significant that the president cited the failure of the aggrieved parties to apply discretion in their fights, and hence created the spectre of potential, and or actual threat to the nation’s economy, given the strategic value of oil rich Rivers State. It was specifically this state of affairs that the president claimed to justify his intervention with a state of emergency.
Going forward now, it is expected that the respective parties in the sordid drama will turn a new leaf and allow the processes of good governance. Both sides must give peace a chance and resolve to serve the people who elected them hoping for dividend of democracy.
But more importantly, those in position of authority must reflect and resolve the issue of declaring emergency by the president which in many cases had political undertones. It would also help a lot if the Supreme Court hastens to adjudicate on the various cases before it following the declaration of emergency in Rivers State. It would be very helpful for the nation to know the limits and powers of the president in this issue.
