Never Again

From March 18 to September 17, 2025, Rivers State was ruled not by its elected leaders but by an unelected sole administrator, Ibok-Ete Ibas, a retired Vice-Admiral appointed by President Bola Tinubu under the cover of emergency rule.
For six long months, Governor Siminalayi Fubara and the State House of Assembly were suspended in circumstances that defied the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The declaration of emergency itself followed a highly controversial Supreme Court verdict that reinstated 27 lawmakers who had publicly defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) the very party on whose platform they were elected. Section 305 of the Constitution is unambiguous: legislators who defect without evidence of a split in their party automatically forfeit their seats. Yet, in a brazen departure from established law and precedent, these defectors were returned.
The emergency period was marked by a wholesale assault on democratic and constitutional principles. The sole administrator dissolved boards of parastatals, commissions, and governing councils, replacing them arbitrarily despite protests. He proceeded to conduct local government elections in flagrant violation of the Electoral Act and judicial precedents. Even INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, objected. There was no proper notice of election, no certified voters’ register from INEC, and no period for claims and objections. On election day, irregularities abounded: multiple thumb-printing, non-declaration of results at polling units, and collation conducted by party agents rather than officials. Predictably, the outcome merely entrenched loyalists of Chief Nyesom Wike, an active player in the state’s political crisis.
Budgeting during the emergency further exposed the illegitimacy of the arrangement. The state’s budget was revised and “approved” not by its legislature but by a House of Representatives committee in Abuja, without public hearings as required by the Constitution. The document was riddled with padding, including N22 billion for CCTV cameras in Government House alone and N30 billion for gunboats across 23 local government areas. Such provisions reeked of a deliberate attempt to divert public funds.
Meanwhile, vital infrastructure projects the Port Harcourt Ring Road, the Trans-Kalabari Road, and the Woji-Aleto-Alesa Road were abandoned. Waste collection collapsed, leaving the state reeking of filth and neglect. As the emergency wound down, the caretaker administration rushed through questionable contracts and procurements, from the rehabilitation of the state secretariat to the purchase of SUVs for lawmakers- many of them outside the budget.
By the end of the six-month experiment, it was evident that emergency rule was never about resolving political tensions. It was a calculated scheme to seize control of Rivers State and hand it to a political cabal. The cost to the state -politically, economically, and socially was immense.
The lesson is clear: never again. The return of democratic governance must not be business as usual. Governor Fubara, the legislature, political leaders, and civil society must take stock of the painful interregnum and ensure that such a travesty is never repeated. All stakeholders must close ranks, heal the divisions, and recommit to the democratic and constitutional order that alone can guarantee Rivers State’s progress.