By Bolaji O. Akinyemi
Permit me to begin with an analogy of nationhood as a marriage relationship, which I feel is a compelling way to analyze Nigeria’s diverse ethnic composition. A marriage thrives on mutual respect, shared values, and fairness—when these are absent, tensions arise, and separation becomes a consideration.
In Nigeria, with over 300 ethnic groups, the idea of a national union should be based on equity, justice, mutual benefit and respect. However, historical and contemporary challenges—such as ethnic marginalization, economic disparity, political exclusion, and violence—have made the relationship between these groups feel abusive for some. If a marriage is abusive, partners either seek reconciliation through fairness or consider separation when all efforts fail.
In the Nigerian context, and with particular reference to the Wike (Ikwerre) and Fubara (Ijaw), Wike/Tinubu is like a favoured wife taken advantage of the husband's love. But we must not lose sight of the choice of the Ijaw to stay in love and leave if feeling abusive.
The questions then arises:
1. Is there a way to restructure the union to ensure fairness for all ethnic groups? (e.g., true federalism, power devolution)
2. What are the consequences of separation or dissolution? (e.g., economic impact, security concerns)
3. Can dialogue and inclusivity repair the trust among these ethnic nationalities?
Many nations with diverse groups have managed to coexist peacefully through strong institutions, fairness, and inclusive governance. Nigeria’s challenge is whether it can reform itself into a fair and just union or if the “marriage” will remain toxic, forcing some groups to seek a way out.
In the article, "Wike’s divide and rule game may backfire!”, my intention was to present the need for us to see nationhood as what all ethnic nationalities within the contraption called Nigeria must come together to build into a family like relationship, to transit from a country to a nation, which requires intentionality on the part of leadership to drive and not divide!
“Orisa bi o le e gbe mi, se mi bo se ba mi” is the saying of our elders in Yorubaland depicting the quest of a desperate man for help but who wouldn’t lose sight of progress, and therefore stated to the gods, if for any reasons you can’t progress me, please leave me the way you met me!
We are obviously divided as a nation along the tribal lines and that of religion. This however attained a worse scenario under Buhari’s Presidency.
The greatest expectation from Bola Ahmed Tinubu was nationhood, but the bridge of that expectation was broken in Abeokuta with its Awalokan political agenda, further burnt during the 2023 election when tribal hatred ignited by the agenda, led to the killings of many. How can we forget the plight of an Ijaw woman from Bayelsa State who suffered the fate reserved for Igbos, Mrs Bina Jennifer Efidi, who was attacked by Emilokan foot soldiers on the order of Musiliu Akinsanya, AKA MC Oluomo who in the manner recently witnessed with Wike during his media chat, in a viral video issued threat that anyone who wouldn’t vote for APC shouldn’t be seen at the polling booth!
The broken and burnt bridge was finally buried on behalf of the APC-led administration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu by his appointed Minister of the FCT and the destroyer in chief of PDP, Nyesome Wike, whose intentional communication and actions at a media chat rather than save Rivers State, doomed it!
Rivers State crisis climaxed, penultimate Wednesday, 12th March 2025, when Wike, in his media chat, put on record the determinants counsel to uproot a Governor who was elected by the people of Rivers State with 303,000 votes, 63% of the votes cast in that election. Did Wike help Fubara? Yes! He did help him to secure the ticket of the PDP to get Fubara on the Ballot! Helped him during the campaign, but the decision that Fubara would be the Governor was made by 302,999 other voters aside from Wike. That is the record according to INEC. Wike could as well write to INEC to have his own vote deducted and Fubara would still be Governor. Where are the 302,999 electorates whose votes are despotically trampled upon by the Declaration of the state of Emergency and the fraudulent imposition of a stranger on Rivers State!
My heart bleeds for democracy when I heard Admiral Ibok-Ette Ibas say; “my good people of Rivers State”! Let me ask Riverians…, is Ibas one of you and are you his good people? I leave you to answer him.
The efforts to save democracy in Rivers State by the Niger Delta stakeholders, especially elders, chiefs, women, Ijaw National Congress, its youth wing, IYC, as well as militants, among others, was aborted by the reckless remark of the unelected appointee of Mr. President to whom he has left to do as he likes in the Niger Delta. The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Chief Nyesome Wike, in a live media chat, dismissed Ijaws as a minority of the minorities and powerless in the Nigerian polity, saying that Ijaws are not the only ones that are militants and can blow up pipelines; that Ogonis, Ikwerres, and others are also militants and can as well blow up pipelines!
This affirmative statement of Wike that Ijaws are not the only ones that are militants and can blow up pipelines; that Ogonis, Ikwerres, and others are also militants and can as well blow up pipelines is what we should be interrogating publicly having been aware that the security agencies are not interested in investigating Wike.
The admission of Mr. President to parties in the crisis and the mentioning of one without the other suggests nothing but conspiracy. Mr. President's biases were further exposed by his claim of receiving a disturbing incident of vandalization of pipelines by some militants without the Governor taking any action to curtail them”.
Can Mr. President let us know the hours between the vandalization and his declaration which according to his speech, may be less than 24 hours in his own words; “between yesterday and today”? Bearing in mind that there was no statement issued by the police on the incident between the time it occurred and his declaration. Further questions to be asked is the geographical and territorial location of the vandalization. Where are they and which are the ethnic nationalities in such location!
In it all, WIKE’s perceived relegation of Ijaws to a political inconsequential minority in the dynamics of power in Rivers State in Nigeria received no mention by the President. This, not just the Ijaws should consider a threat to their existence in our contraption, all peace- loving, nation-building citizens of the country should stand up for true federalism along ethnic boundaries to realise resource control.
All Nigerians at home and in the Diaspora should stand up for democracy. I will urge 302,999 people who voted for Fubara to rise to the occasion with us in a non-violent protest in demand for the restoration of democratic governance in Rivers State by wearing black cloth from Monday, 24th March, 2025 to mourn the attack on democracy as we go about our daily duties peacefully for seven days while consulting with other ethnic nationalities and pro-Nigeria groups on what should be the next line of action after the first seven days of warning.
One of the components of true federalism is resource control. The Ogoni, Ikwerre, Ijaw and other minority ethnic nationalities in the Niger Delta, better accept the fact that motivation for the declaration of a state of emergency in Rivers State is the control of their God-given resources. Size is the excuse for which they are trapped in the contraption called Nigeria! Size is the excuse Wike adduced for trampling the Ijaws.
An Omoluabi Yoruba close to Wike should help me tell him, “Eniyan ki kere nidi nkan e”, meaning no one is too small to control whatever belongs to him/her.
Wike and minds like his need be educated about functional federalism. The state of Wyomming with a population of just 584,000 is in union with the state of California with 39.4 million people. I need mention Rhode Island, the smallest in terms of total area and land mass. In Wike’s small mind, Rhode Island will be a village in Nigeria with its 3,144 square kilometre and Alaska with 665,384 square miles that is significantly larger than other states should then be a continent trampling down others.
As the saying goes; “what goes round, comes round”. Today, is the turn of Ijaw, tomorrow could definitely be the turn of other ethnic nationalities. Statements made by some persons of Igbo extractions suggesting that this is the turn of Ijaw to pay for what they did to the Igbos during the war, is a tactical support for civil war ideological treatment of the Igbos which still exists in the mind of Wike, would only strengthen our oppressors in their resolve to take us down one after the other. There is therefore no better time to stand by a people insulted for their size without consideration for their resource contribution to Nigeria than now!
Since the days of Sir Peter Odili as the Executive Governor of Rivers State, the state has largely been funding all Presidential elections in the country.
In my opinion, the need to control the resources of Rivers State seems the only reason for the President’s declaration of a state of emergency. How do you explain the constitutional fact that the primary responsibility of government is to provide security of life and property, but while the American Government is worried about killings in some states in Northern Nigeria and strict sanctions are recommended against its Nigerian counterpart, the Nigerian Government, which is unperturbed about killings in the north, hastily declared a state of emergency in Rivers over pipeline vandalization!
Do the lives of the people of the Niger Delta and the officers and men in the military matter to this government at all?
Not even the gruesome murder of Lt Col AH Ali, the commanding officer of 181 Amphibious battalion, along with 2 Majors, 1 Captain and 12 soldiers ambushed and killed in Okuama Community, Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State could anger the President towards a declaration of State of Emergency. Why this hasty decision in less than 24 hours with not a single life reported lost!
The wisdom of the inventor of democracy, is, balance of power viz a viz a check on the recklessness of the executive. This is supposed to be provided by the Institutions of the judiciary and the legislative arms!
Both have become a burden through fraternal conspiracy with the executive arm. The media being the fourth estate of the realm, had been long overrun by the influence of mammon!
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was the leader of the best opposition Nigeria had ever experienced. He was there for Ladoja during the impeachment move of Obasanjo cum Adedibu against him!
The danger of losing a proactive and pragmatic opposition to power is what we are faced with. Their understanding of the dynamics of how to court the instrument of balance; the judiciary and legislative arms. How to patronise the fourth realm and finally, how to destroy the opposition to perpetuate themselves in power is on record historically.
Do I need to remind Nigerians that Adolf Hitler came to power through an election? With the destruction of PDP by WIKE, the successful shredding of the Labour party by moles in their midst, we are up against tyranny! We must rise to say no to usurpation of democratic powers by a despot not elected in Rivers State.
Democracy is a government of the people by the people and for the people. If the actions of elected officers failed to deliver the people's expectations, then it is time for people to rise in defence of Democracy.
We will be rising on Monday the 24th of March peacefully by wearing a black cloth with the Map of Rivers State inscribed in the front for the first 7 days warning for restoration of democratic governance in River State. We urge all Nigerians to rise with us.
In one of my past articles. I reiterated that no political realignment can stop Tinubu in 2027. We all are living witnesses of a National Assembly who hath sworn to an oath of allegiance to stand on the mandate of Mr. President even at the expense of The People that the national assembly was designed to represent and protect at his very first appearance before the joint session. They hailed and sang for a man standing before them as the representative of 250 million Nigerians for their vetting of the budget and approval.
March 20, 2025, Nigeria’s National Assembly, through voice vote dashed the hope of the majority of Nigerians by approving President Bola Tinubu’s proclamation of a state of emergency in Rivers State. This move, which suspended Governor Fubara, his deputy, and the state legislature for six months, starkly bypassed constitutional requirements, raising concerns about the integrity of the legislative process. The Constitution demands a two-third majority to approve a state of emergency, yet the voice vote, a subjective and opaque method, failed to ensure transparency, leaving Nigerians uncertain about whether the measure truly had the required support.
President Tinubu’s declaration was already contentious, and the National Assembly’s rubber-stamp approval, lacking public debate, deepened distrust and led to accusations of corruption. The imposition of a federal-appointed administrator, rather than elected leadership, further alienated Rivers’ residents, amplifying claims of “state capture.”
The incident exposes a broader issue: the misuse of voice voting in critical matters undermines accountability and transparency. In a nation scared by democratic setbacks, this shortcut risks normalizing arbitrary power and threatens to erode constitutional safeguards. The Rivers State debacle highlights the urgent need for constitucional reform, but can a National Assembly that opted for voice voting on such matters be trusted with the long awaited duty of restructuring and restoring true federalism which was the intention of our founding fathers as communicated through the 1963 Parliamentary Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria?
The flawed procedural conduct of the national assembly on the all important issue is a direct threat to the integrity of Nigeria’s democracy.
Way Forward:
I read about the planned world press or media chat by Atiku, Obi, El-Rufai, Amaechi and other political elites in the opposition on the declaration of the state of emergency in Rivers State. A political elite-led protest would only end as a waste of time and resources. If allegedly as reported by Sahara Reporters, our Senators are not worth more than $25,000 to sell us out on this state of emergency when our hope hung on them. Truth be told, there is a trust deficit on our political elites. Their foot soldiers who will mobilise the public are way cheaper than the “legislatheives”. Politics and its practising elites in the country have lost their integrity. How would Nigerians line up in an arrangement to protest against APC behind Atiku, El-Rufai and Amaechi who were frontliners in the call for change in 2015?
To the Nigerian youth, you have done it before and you can do it again. #EndSARS was a success because it was led by the people. Political elites who are interested to be a part of this should fall behind the people.
Standing on Bonny Island, Rivers State in 1983, the late Sage and authentic all-time Leader of the Yoruba Nation, Chief Jeremiah Obafemi Awolowo said, when we are ready, we will fight for ourselves. Forty-two years later, Rivers State is confronted with a situation in which all lovers of Democracy must stand for her. In another of his philosophical expressions, he said 25 years after democracy, there shall be a revolution that will reset Nigeria.
Happening now shows clearly we are presented with the opportunity to set a new political trajectory to save the nation and secure the future of our children and unborn children.
This is not an exigency for political gain, it’s a quest for national survival. We either do this or Nigeria may be shredded in pieces.
Time for the people to lead in the movement to take back their country. When we have a country, we can then play politics. We all should stand with Rivers State. Let us all fall behind the people for immediate restoration of democratic governance. I stand with Rivers' 302,999 voters for the restoration of Democracy Now!
Dr Bolaji Oluwayanmife Akinyemi is a leading voice in Civic and human rights Advocacy in Nigeria, and the Chairman of Project Victory Call Initiative, popularly known as PVC-Naija.
He is also the Convener of Apostolic Round Table.