Supporters of suspended Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, are on edge as they await his return from London, just a week before the six-month emergency rule imposed by President Bola Tinubu is set to expire.
According to a reliable source quoted by The Guardian, President Tinubu is considering October 1st, Nigeria’s Independence Day, as the symbolic date to reinstate the embattled governor, months after he allegedly broke a truce brokered in June.
Tinubu declared an emergency rule in Rivers on March 18, 2025, following an emergency security council meeting at Aso Rock.
The decision was hinged on political instability, constitutional violations, and growing security threats as justification for the extraordinary measure.
Vice Admiral Ibok-Étè Ibas (retd.), a former Chief of Naval Staff under ex-President Muhammadu Buhari, was installed as sole administrator to stabilize the oil-rich state. The President argued that the crisis had “paralysed governance” in Rivers, which had descended into a fierce power tussle between Fubara and his estranged political benefactor, Nyesom Wike.
A day before the emergency declaration, an explosion ripped through the Trans Niger Pipeline in Bodo Community, Gokana LGA. Another blast followed in Ogba-Egbema-Ndoni, intensifying fears of sabotage by militants allegedly loyal to Fubara. The incidents hit just as the Tinubu administration scrambled to raise Nigeria’s crude oil output and plug revenue leaks.
The Rivers political storm dates back to December 2023, when Fubara demolished the state’s House of Assembly complex. That action triggered months of legal and political battles, worsened when 27 pro-Wike lawmakers defected from the PDP to the APC.
On February 28, 2025, the Supreme Court ruled that the lawmakers remained legitimate members of the Assembly while faulting Fubara’s conduct as “unconstitutional and despotic.”
The verdict meant that Rivers had effectively collapsed into one-man rule, as the Assembly was crippled and the 2025 Appropriation Bill stalled.
With the emergency rule’s end now in sight, all eyes are on Tinubu’s next move, and on whether Fubara will indeed stage a dramatic Independence Day comeback.
