Tinubu’s Endless Interventions in Rivers Crisis

After the two previous attempts by President Bola Tinubu to broker peace between Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, including the declaration of a six-month emergency, failed to resolve the political crisis in the state, will Tinubu’s latest intervention end the crisis? Ejiofor Alike asks

Will the latest intervention by President Bola Tinubu in the protracted Rivers State political crisis restore permanent peace in the state?

This is the question on the lips of many Nigerians who watched how Tinubu’s first intervention in December 2023 and his second intervention through the declaration of state of emergency in March 2025 failed to resolve the crisis.  

The political disagreement between Governor Siminalayi Fubara and his predecessor and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, who is backing the state House of Assembly, plunged the state into a protracted political crisis with all the political actors in the state locked in a tug of war.

Fubara and Wike had developed a cat and mouse relationship just within months of the governor’s swearing into office in May 2023.

As the FCT minister, who personally installed the governor as his successor, allegedly sought to control the machinery of the state government from Abuja, the governor had resisted what political analysts described as the FCT minister’s chokehold on him.

The crisis degenerated to impeachment moves against the governor and the consequent demolition of a section of the state House of Assembly complex to prevent the lawmakers from sitting.

Tinubu’s first major attempt to resolve the crisis was in December 2023 when he brokered an eight-point peace deal between Wike and Fubara at a crucial meeting at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

By the terms of the peace resolution, the impeachment move against Fubara was stopped.

However, many believed the eight-point peace deal was skewed against Fubara and it was not surprising that it collapsed.

As the political crisis deepened, President Tinubu imposed a six-month emergency rule on March 18, 2025, suspending Fubara; his deputy, Prof. Ngozi Nma Odu, and all the members of state House of Assembly for six months, which ended on Thursday, September 18, 2025.

He appointed a former Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas as the administrator of the state.

However, the six months suspension of these political leaders did not teach them any lesson as they returned to the trenches shortly after its expiration.

Politicians who carved out the state as their personal estate refused to give peace a chance.

The renewed crisis worsened on Thursday, January 8, 2026, when the Wike-backed 27 lawmakers announced the impeachment process against Governor Fubara and his deputy.

The Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Martin Amaewhule was being positioned to take over as the next governor after the impeachment of the governor and his deputy.

However, Fubara’s camp experienced respite barely four days after the commencement of the impeachment proceedings, when one of the sponsors of the impeachment motion, Sylvanus Nwankwo alongside another lawmaker, Peter Abbey, rescinded their position and appealed to their colleagues to seek an amicable resolution.

Shortly after, two female lawmakers – Barile Nwakoh, Khana Constituency I, and Emilia Amadi of Obio/Akpor Constituency II, also appealed to their colleagues to withdraw the impeachment process.

However, the jubilation in Fubara’s camp was short-lived as the four lawmakers later reversed themselves and rejoined their colleagues.

All the 27 lawmakers asked the Chief Judge of the State, Justice Simeon Amadi to set up a seven-man panel to commence the investigation process.

But Fubara and his deputy approached a State High Court in Oyigbo Judiciary Division, praying the court to restrain the Speaker and other lawmakers, including the Clerk of the house and Chief Judge of Rivers State, from going on with the process.

The presiding judge, Justice F.A Fiberesima, in a ruling in a motion exparte in the two separate suits, barred the Chief Judge of the state, from “receiving, forwarding, considering and or however acting on any request, resolution, articles of impeachment or other document or communication from one to 27 defendants for the purposes of constituting a panel to investigate the purported allegations of misconduct against the governor and his deputy for seven days”.

Consequently, Justice Amadi declined to set up a judicial panel to investigate Fubara.

In a letter dated January 20 and addressed to the Speaker, Amaewhule, the chief judge cited two court orders served on him on January 16, barring him from receiving, forwarding, or considering any requests to form such a panel.

Justice Amadi further noted that the Speaker had already filed an appeal against the court orders at the Court of Appeal.

“By the doctrine of ‘lis pendens’, parties and the court have to await the outcome of the appeal,” he said.

Justice Amadi further stated that the existence of the injunctions and the pending appeal had effectively tied his hands.

As the different political gladiators in the state were awaiting the decisions of the courts, President Tinubu, again, intervened to halt the unending crisis.

In the fresh intervention, Tinubu ordered an immediate suspension of any impeachment moves against Fubara.

The president, however, gave very strict conditions to Fubara that effectively strengthened Wike’s grip on the political structure of the state.

Just like the December 2023 peace terms that rendered Fubara impotent politically, Tinubu’s latest intervention acknowledged Wike as the undisputed political leader of Rivers State.

Tinubu’s position was however contrary to APC’s tradition, which reorganises the governors as the leaders of the party in their respective states.

Speaking while representing Tinubu at the official reception of the Governor of Taraba State, Agbu Kefas into the APC in Jalingo, the state capital, Vice President Kashim Shettima, had clarified that all the APC governors, including Borno State Governor, Prof. Babagana Zulum, and Governor Umo Eno of Akwa Ibom State are the leaders of the party in their states, irrespective of his presence in Borno and the presence of the Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio, in Akwa Ibom.

But Tinubu was said to have acknowledged Wike as the leader in Rivers State.

 “Is Babajide Sanwo-Olu my leader in Lagos, or was Babatunde Fashola my leader when he was governor?” Tinubu reportedly asked, according to an unnamed source quoted by THISDAY.

While the president directed Wike and his camp to immediately halt all impeachment-related actions against Fubara, the governor was instructed to make significant concessions, including the formal recognition of Wike as the “political leader” with final authority on party matters even when the FCT minister is not a member of the APC.

Will these concessions and flouting of APC’s tradition to accommodate these contradictions resolve the crisis?

The events of the next few months will provide an answer to this question.