As Fubara returns

September 9, 2025 by Gabriel Amalu

All appears set for the return of Sir Siminalayi Fubara to his exalted position as governor of Rivers State. The six month’s state of emergency imposed on the state by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (PBAT), on March 18, will expire on September 17. According to reports, the president had met with Fubara apparently to discuss his impending return before departing for his 10-days working leave outside the country. Neither the presidency nor Fubara’s camp issued statement with respect to what transpired at the meeting.

Unlike in the past, the vile supporters of the governor have kept mum. They have not gone on to condemn the visit, excoriate the president, and analyse what they consider the constitutional impediments a president has, with respect to the rights of a sub-national government. For many of them, the president acted ultra vires in suspending Governor Fubara, and they are disappointed that the Supreme Court has not gone ahead to declare the state of emergency in Rivers State a nullity.

It is not unlikely that many of them would be nursing the ambition and waiting for an opportunity to exert their pound of flesh on the governor’s opponents. Since they cannot do it by themselves, except perhaps at the polls, they may be waiting for the governor to return to his seat, before pilling pressure on him to return to the trenches. Many of them, from what transpired before the state of emergency was declared are averse to political reasoning. They prefer the “oshobe” approach, which the wiser Fubara, has now decried.

Fubara, who when he was goaded on deceptively by inexperienced activists, had declared that the jungle has matured, eventually discovered that the political jungle is not for amateur pugilists. The governor, obviously a featherweight political combatant made the error of taking on his mentor and godfather, Nyesom Wike, a tested political warrior without first developing the muscle and capacity to fight in heavyweight category. Fubara, who was drafted from the urbane civil service into the combustible arena of political combat needed to develop the muscles first.

To attempt to move straight from featherweight to heavyweight, showed the naivety of the suspended governor. In the boxing arena, there is no known person who moved from featherweight to heavyweight, because it requires a pugilist to gain a lot of weight for such a transition. If Fubara had good advisers, he would have first developed the muscle to move from amateur to professional, and as a professional, gently move from bantamweight to featherweight, to lightweight, before contemplating heavyweight categories.

Perhaps, Fubara, was misled into thinking that the allegory of boxing in political duels, was on all fours, with political weight categories. For if Fubara was to be in real boxing fight with Wike, he would certainly match him grit for grit considering their near real weight categories. And should Wike make the grave error of punching above his weight, Fubara would have dueled him effectively. But, alas, fights in political duels are not measured by the real weight of combatants on a measurement scale.

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Fubara, also made the grave mistake of opening another warfront by declaring the mediatory intervention of President Tinubu as meddlesomeness. This column recalls that in October, 2023, merely five months after Fubara was sworn in, Rivers was already in turmoil and President Tinubu had called a meeting of the two major gladiators, Fubara and Wike, and other leaders in the state to agree on a peace deal. Even after agreeing to implement the deal, Fubara was misled into badmouthing the agreement as merely political, and not constitutionally binding on him.

As I argued in my piece: Fubara versus Wike on May 14, 2024: “while constitutionally he (Fubara) does not serve at the pleasure of the president, he needs the friendship of the president to serve pleasurably…. For his own success as governor, Simi must project respect, even when displaying strength, in dealing with Nigeria’s presidential behemoth.” Less than a year after the dire warning, the crisis in Rivers compelled the president to exercise his powers as provided for, in section 305 of the 1999 constitution (as amended).  

But like a person whose spell had been cast off, after the state of emergency was declared, Fubara was all thanks to Tinubu, less than two weeks after the state of emergency was imposed. Admitting that he had come down from his high horses, he effusively thanked the president for his intervention, and said but for the intervention, the story in Rivers would have been different. Indeed, but for opening a war front with the president in his speech, after his Abuja trip, the story may have been different.

The burlesque of unlimited power by an elected state governor was what led Fubara to the six-month suspension. Hopefully, he has lent his lessons, and he will spend the next 20 months trying to etch his name in the sands of time in Rivers State. He could do that by efficiently and effectively using the enormous resources of the state for the benefit of the people. No doubt, Rivers State is one of the richest states in Nigeria, both with respect to earning from the federation account and internally generated revenue.

By several accounts, Rivers is the second richest state in Nigeria, after Lagos State. Fubara should concentrate on touching the lives of the people, not through the unsustainable populist programmes he was doing when he was fighting Wike, but through sustainable legacy projects. With his second term foreclosed, except a miracle happens, the temptation would be to ape his brother governors who engage in white elephant projects, to siphon money for their unborn generations. But Fubara, must realize that he will be under intense monitoring, for the remainder of his tenure.

Unfortunately, he would have to work with a state legislature that is his sworn enemy. So, he has to plead for every approval and should he bare his teeth, they would knock it off, without warning. He will also not get the best cooperation from the newly (s)elected local government councilors and chairmen. Since they are products of a political compromise to save what is left of his governorship tenure, they would treat him, as a lame-duck governor. Even his appointees will work with caution.

How he manages the remainder of his tenure, will be a study in political survival. While the trust between him and Wike has been damaged, he could with an obvious sense of humility, do a lot of damage control. More so, Wike, needs his cooperation to deliver on his political promises, to his benefactors. Because, even in his brokenness, it is still Fubara, that will give final approval for the release of state funds, for projects and other benefits. And while Wike, may have won now, the future is ever pregnant.

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