Can the Wike–Fubara Feud Finally Be Laid to Rest?

In Rivers’ politics, when peace arrives, it is normally quietly summoned to Abuja, ushered into a closed room, and announced in careful sentences that say less than they imply.

On February 9, 2026, President Bola Tinubu met Governor Siminalayi Fubara and FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike at the Presidential Villa. It was his third intervention since Fubara assumed office with the same aim as the previous two: to cool a feud that has unsettled Rivers State.

The clash began as a struggle for influence, then metastasised into allies defecting and lawsuits multiplying. When the State House of Assembly entered into the fray, it was to become a theatre of brinkmanship, issuing impeachment notices that sharpened the crisis. By March 2025, the breakdown had culminated in a six-month state of emergency.

President Tinubu first stepped in October 2023. That ceasefire lasted weeks. A second attempt in December produced an eight-point accord; partial compliance followed, then recrimination. Each effort promised détente, and each dissolved into fresh acrimony.

Somehow, this time feels different. After the latest meeting, both men reportedly pledged allegiance to the rule of law. Wike publicly urged lawmakers to halt the third impeachment push, voicing optimism that the President would not need to intervene again.

But peace in Rivers has always carried a cost, especially now that reports suggest that Fubara may forgo a 2027 re-election bid while allowing Wike to retain sway over local government structures. If accurate, that is a significant gambit: stability purchased through concession.

Meanwhile, political realignment is complicating matters. Because Fubara’s move into the APC places him formally within Tinubu’s orbit, the presidency is now mediating between a serving minister and a governor in its own party. Truly, it is a dynamic, at once pragmatic and delicate.

Not to forget that Wike has warned that a Fubara second term would mean his political burial. Fubara says the hatchet is buried. For now, impeachment is paused, and tempers have been lowered. The question is not whether peace was declared in Abuja. It is whether Rivers’ politics, built on patronage and personal loyalty, can sustain it without another summons to the Villa.