Political activists and the people of Rivers State have expressed disappointment over the refusal or failure of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to see June 12, 2025, a day Nigeria celebrated its 26th year of uninterrupted democracy, as an opportunity to restore democratic governance in Rivers State.
There were expectations, fueled by speculations, that the President would end the undemocratic government in Rivers State and recall Governor Siminalayi Fubara to mark his activities for the Democracy Day celebration.
However, those expectations were met with disappointment as the President neither mentioned nor said anything concerning the state when he addressed a joint session of the National Assembly.
Recall that Tinubu suspended democratic rule in Rivers for six months in a bid to restore calm in the state, which, according to him, was getting out of control under Fubara’s watch.
In his speech, Tinubu lamented that the crisis had persisted, insisting that there was no way democratic governance, which, according to him, Nigerians have fought and worked for over the years, can thrive in a way that will benefit the people of the state in such circumstances.
“Some militants had threatened fire and brimstone against their perceived enemy of the governor who has up till now NOT disowned them,” Tinubu said.
According to the President, on March 18, 2025, it became inevitably compelling for him to invoke the provision of Section 305 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as amended, which he said had empowered him to declare a state of emergency in the state.
The President complained that prior to the suspension, the state had been at a standstill since the crisis started. However, some people from the state who spoke to DAILY POST said that things are worse now, despite monthly allocations being released to the Sole Administrator.
Meanwhile, DAILY POST can report that the Governor had made some moves to represent the 2025 state appropriation bill to the State Assembly, but the House was said to have turned him back.
On Wednesday, March 12, 2025, Fubara was denied access to the Rivers State House of Assembly quarters, where lawmakers currently held plenary sessions, as he arrived to present the state’s 2025 budget as ordered by the court.
After the declaration of emergency rule, DAILY POST understands that Fubara has visited his benefactor and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Nyesom Wike, at least twice as he seeks reconciliation.
DAILY POST reliably gathered that Fubara met with Wike at his residence in Abuja on Monday, June 13, 2025.
He has also met with President Tinubu at his residence in Lagos before the Democracy Day.
All this put together, some Nigerians were expecting the President to cut short the six-month suspension and return democratic rule to Rivers State on June 12.
Speaking on the matter, the senator representing Bayelsa West district and former Governor of Bayelsa State, Henry Seriake Dickson, had faulted Tinubu’s silence on the emergency rule in Rivers State in his address to a joint session of the National Assembly.
Reflecting on the symbolic importance of the June 12 Democracy Day, Dickson said he expected Tinubu to use the occasion to restore democratic rule in Rivers State.
The senator regretted that the President missed a golden opportunity to strengthen democracy by skipping Rivers State in his address.
“You cannot claim to be a democrat on one hand, while trampling democracy underfoot on the other. The President missed a golden opportunity today to strengthen democracy by restoring constitutional rule in Rivers State.
“The silence on Rivers State in the President’s address was deafening. Today is not about repression. It’s not about the suppression of voices. It’s about upholding and respecting the democratic rights of Nigerians, especially the people of Rivers State.
“This is not about Governor Fubara’s origin or political party, if he even has one. Today, people switch parties so frequently we can hardly keep track. This is about the people of Rivers State, their democratic rights, and the sanctity of our Constitution,” he said.
Speaking to DAILY POST, Port Harcourt-based political activist, legal practitioner, and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, Chizy Enyi, Esq., said all that matters to the President now is his re-election in 2027.
“It is now obvious and in the public domain that the reason behind Tinubu’s suspending the executive governor of Rivers State is to take control of the state and to win the election in Rivers State by 2027.
Though this is against the Constitution, Rivers State, or Rivers people, cannot resort to self-help by disrespecting the President to take charge of the state based on the fact that they elected or voted for Fubara, who Tinubu does not have the right to suspend.
“However, having suspended Governor Fubara, we’re all aware that Tinubu said he is saving Rivers State from an impending crisis. Now, the problem between Governor Fubara and Wike has always been his political structure, ‘my structure, my structure.’ He always said the Governor should not tamper with his structure.
“But then what he refers to as a structure is the local government, the party officials, and the cabinet of the governor, appointments and all that.
Now, Tinubu has appointed a Sole Administrator who has resorted to appointing other board members and conducting local government elections in a place where we have military rule.
“Now that we are under military rule, how can we also conduct elections under military rule? Now, conducting elections and giving appointments to all Wike’s supporters, having appointed the Sole Administrators of the various local governments, all as Wike’s supporters, is the evidence of the fact that truly Tinubu has resorted to giving Wike the structure he meant.
“Else, how will Tinubu suspend the sitting governor and then allow the election of local government chairmen to be conducted? Now the Supreme Court said that the Sole Administrators, or any appointee, as a local government chairman, whether caretaker or underany nomenclature, should not head local government. But since the appointment of the Sole Administrator, he has also appointed the Sole Administrators of the various local governments. Tinubu has refused to acknowledge that this is against the provisions of the Constitution and also the judgment of the Supreme Court.
“Assuming it is the people of Fubara who are being appointed as the Sole Administrators of local governments, Wike’s supporters would have resorted to violence.
Everything about violence happening in Rivers State has always been done by Wike’s supporters. So the problem here in Rivers State, everybody knows, is not about the Governor, is not about any other thing, but it’s about President Tinubu giving Wike back the structure to deliver him by 2027.
“We only have to be law-abiding, but in 2027, we are not yet very close to ’27 and yet they decided to do this to reverse people’s mandate. The President has decided to undermine Rivers State. For the past two years now that he was elected, he has not visited the state, yet he wants our votes.
“2027 will determine whether or not President Tinubu is doing well. By June 12, there were also many expectations that Fubara would have been reinstated. He [Tinubu] refused and deliberately turned down the hope, wishes, and aspirations of Rivers’ people. Time will tell, and history will always repeat itself.
“It’s going to be very bad that Rivers will always remember President Tinubu for bad instead of for good.”
Also speaking, a former National Publicity Secretary of the New Peoples Democratic Party, nPDP, and a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, told DAILY POST that the suspension of democracy is the President’s agenda to underdevelop Rivers State.
Eze said that ahead of the 2027 general elections, Tinubu is strategising to ensure that a former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, does not have a solid base politically.
“He is after Amaechi and not Rivers State per se,” he said, adding that Tinubu has captured the state for his 2027 agenda.
“President Tinubu is not being influenced by any external force, but this is his agenda, to underdevelop Rivers State to avoid the state from being developed like Lagos and Akwa Ibom States,” he said.
“It is a calculated strategy to ensure that Amaechi does not have a solid base politically. He is after Amaechi and not Rivers State per se.
“He has captured the resources of Rivers State for his 2027 agenda, but it is left to the people of Rivers State to continue to tolerate his evil agenda.
“The emergency rule will only end when he is sure that Sim Fubara is so incapacitated and ready to carry out their evil agenda against Rivers State and her people.
“From the security challenges facing many states where hundreds are being killed, we can now deduce accurately that it wasn’t any security challenge pertaining to Rivers State that brought about the state of emergency, but a selfish drive to destroy Rivers State.
“I am sad because some of the misguided fellows that call themselves leaders from the state are rejoicing and celebrating while Tinubu is destroying their state. May God have mercy upon them all.”
According to Dike Emmanuel, a resident of Port Harcourt who spoke to DAILY POST on phone, “All the road projects that were started by Governor Fubara have been abandoned. There are no new ones. I wonder what the money from the Federation Account is being channeled to.”
Asked if peace has returned to the state, Finipri Obomanu said, “Yes. There is peace in Rivers State even before the President suspended the Governor. If you are looking for places where people are being killed on a daily basis, you can go to Benue, Zamfara, Plateau, and all those places. Not Rivers. There was no need to declare a state of emergency here.”
The people of the state said that with the emergency rule, they are not able to have access to the dividends of democracy.
The Ijaw Youth Council, IYC, Worldwide, had also called on President Tinubu to demonstrate his commitment to democratic ideals by lifting the state of emergency imposed on Rivers State and restoring constitutional democracy.
The Council made this appeal ahead of the commemoration of this year’s Democracy Day on June 12.
It said Tinubu, as a foremost beneficiary of democratic evolution in the country, should use the occasion of June 12 to restore Governor Siminalayi Fubara and all elected lawmakers in the state.
