Come Thursday, September 18, 2025, the six-month state of emergency imposed on Rivers State by President Bola Tinubu in March 2025 will lapse, along with the suspension of the democratically elected leadership of the state. In that circumstance, the suspended officials, comprising Governor Siminalayi Fubara, Deputy Governor Ngozi Ordu and members of the Rivers State House of Assembly (RSHA), will be eligible to return to office.
In anticipation of this development, there have been sundry contemplations on the way forward for the governor and the state, spurred by the rather bizzarre incidence of the state of emergency, as well as the draconian import of the suspension in the first place.
The president had imposed the state of emergency on the state, citing security reports that raised the scare of potential breakdown of law and order in the oil and gas-rich zone of the country. Such a scenario – from the perspective canvassed by the president – clearly connoted a red flag, with grave portends for deleterious effect on the country’s economy. Just as well, many had faulted the president’s claim for such a disposition as there was hardly any such untoward tendency in the state at the time of the his clampdown. Not surprisingly, the state of emergency left a bitter taste on the palate of Rivers people, as well as countless others.
Meanwhile, against the backdrop of the positive and negative impacts the state of emergency visited on the entire community, prospects of its cessation raised hopes of a new beginning for not a few citizens both within and outside government circles as the people took stock of issues associated with it.
Of significance among these contemplations are those that dwell on the future trajectory for Fubara as governor and the state itself. One factor that drives the spirited contemplations on the way forward is the crystal-clear scenario that it will no more be business as usual for the returnee governor.
In returning to office as governor, Siminalayi Fubara will have himself cornered by the loyalists of Nyesom Wike – his predecessor in office and traducer-in-chief; that was until a seeming truce was contrived between them.
As is easily recalled, Fubara and Wike had been at each other’s throat over control of the politics of the state for as long as two years, with the recent August 30, 2025 local government poll swinging the power dynamics in favour of Wike as he gained dominance in the process.
This factor and the frosty relationship between Fubara and the equally returning members of the RSHA will pose a significant challenge to his return as it is like marching into a mine field armed with little more than your wits. He is literally coming back with vastly reduced status with respect to political clout and leverage in the exercise of powers of a governor. As a result, one school of thought holds that on return, Fubara should appreciate that his political survival depends on the proclivities of the Wike-led structure surrounding him and accommodate such for peace to reign in the state, for which he had craved all along. Another school of thought contends that given the lame-duck disposition that will greet Fubara on return to office, he should simply abdicate his position as governor to save himself from further embarrassment, which asserting himself my attract.
While both schools of thought may be entitled to their opinions, the core question is of: What benefit shall whatever new dispensation in governance be to the wider cross section in the people of the state.
Placed in perspective, the choices open to Fubara on his ‘second missionary journey as governor are at least two. First is that he returns as a compliant governor who will accommodate in his stride, the unusual circumstances of the contrived, new lame-duck dispensation, which may be suffocating. Second is that he returns with a measure of assertiveness as a man of his own convictions in office, who is prepared to deliver credible leadership and service as the duly elected governor of Rivers State.
Seen in context, the foregoing advocacies hinge their merit on the premise that the office of governor is more about the person of whosoever is incumbent, with Siminalayi Fubara this time than the constitution and its provisions, which not only created the office in the first place but also prescribed the functions of the incumbent, as well as the circumstances guiding the processes of occupancy.
In any case, it is the misplaced prevalence of such a consideration that spawns the entire saga of problematic personalisation of essentially statutory matters across the country, and the attendant displacement of constitutional provisions with the questionable resort to ‘political solutions’.
As dividend to the country is the rash of political crises also across the country, which often seem intractable and defy rational solutions, having been spawned in lawlessness.
For Fubara, the better option for him on return is to be guided and protected by the constitution in asserting himself decisively, as much as the office demands. This is what Rivers people will expect from him on return. That is also what will determine his political future, just as it is also what will endear him to posterity.