RIVERS: Nigerians React To Tinubu’s State Of Emergency Declaration

Nigerians have taken to social media to express mixed reactions following President Bola Tinubu’s declaration of a state of emergency in Rivers State.

The declaration, announced in a national broadcast on Tuesday, will bar Rivers State Governor Siminalayi Fubara, Deputy Governor Ngozi Odu, and all elected members of the state’s House of Assembly for six months, once approved by the National Assembly.

Tinubu also appointed Vice Admiral Ibokette Ibas (Rtd.) as Sole Administrator to manage state affairs during the period.

Many Nigerians took to X (formerly Twitter) to express their views on the controversial decision, with some supporting the emergency declaration while others condemned it as politically motivated.

“Suddenly everyone is acting surprised by the declaration of state of emergency in Rivers state by the President. Two oil pipelines already blown & more could follow, yet you want the C-in-C to fold his arms because of re-election threats?” wrote @AyanbisiAT.

Some, however, believe the measure unfairly targets Governor Fubara while leaving out FCT Minister Nyesom Wike, whom many see as central to the crisis.

“If Fubara is suspended, Wike should also be suspended. He’s the originator of the crisis. Wike is an appointee not an elected official,” argued @juddypatrick.

@EhiEhidan said, “@officialABAT suspending Fubara is a disgrace. Wike is still in his government, and Rivers is a PDP state. Tinubu may have made a terrible mistake with this move…. Wike did his 8 years and disrupting the state is selfish.”

Others questioned the legality of the President’s action.

@chinedu_mabu wrote, “The President does not have the direct authority to suspend a state governor. Governors are elected officials and have constitutional protection in their roles. We will end up setting a bad precedence in this country with our judiciary also captured.”

“This state of emergency was not the fault if Fubara. This was the plan of Wike and his 27 horsemen. Now they have gotten what they want so let them rest,” claimed @enyinnaya198.

@itumasunny2496 said, “The greatest enemies Fubara has are those men and women in Rivers State that pushed him to take those steps of demolishing the State Assembly Complex and making those unnecessary utterances.”

The political crisis started after Governor Fubara fell out with Wike, his political godfather, barely three months after the former won election.

In his national broadcast, President Tinubu cited the lingering political crisis and its effects on democracy, security, and citizens’ well-being as reasons for the declaration.

“Like many of you, I have watched with concern the development with the hope that the parties involved would allow good sense to prevail at the soonest, but all that hope burned out without any solution to the crisis,” Tinubu stated.

He mentioned the Supreme Court judgment of February 28 that found “grave unconstitutional acts and disregard of rule of law” by Governor Fubara, including the demolition of the House of Assembly complex in December 2023.

Tinubu further referred to recent security reports of pipeline vandalism by militants and the inability of the governor and legislature to work together as justification for his intervention.

Meanwhile, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar condemned the state of emergency declaration as “political manipulation and outright bad faith.”

Reacting, Atiku accused Tinubu of being “a vested partisan actor” in the political crisis and criticised his “blatant refusal or calculated negligence” in preventing the escalation of tensions.

Punishing the people of Rivers State just to serve the political gamesmanship between the governor and @officialABAT ’s enablers in the federal government is nothing less than an assault on democracy and must be condemned in the strongest terms,” Atiku wrote via X.

RIVERS: Nigerians React To Tinubu’s State Of Emergency Declaration is first published on The Whistler Newspaper