Amid the euphoria that greeted the restoration of peace to Rivers State following Thursday’s reconciliation meeting between the feuding immediate past governor of the state and minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, and his hitherto estranged godson, Siminalayi Fubara, with President Bola Tinubu, some political analysts have cautioned against the withdrawal of pending cases in courts challenging the powers of the president to declare a state of emergency in the state, dismantling of democratic structures and appointing a sole administrator.
Giving their perspectives on the reconciliation brokered by the president on Channels Television programme, Politics Today on Friday night, a university don, Kenneth Nweke, a professor of Politics and Governance at the Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Rivers State, and Jide Ojo, a lawyer, columnist and and political analyst, while welcoming the political solution to the protracted crisis, insisted that the legal debates must subsist for final pronouncement on the issues.
The duo therefore advised Fubara that the pending lawsuits should not be withdrawn, though they were quick to point out that the suits were not initiated by him. They however envisaged a situation whereby members of the civil society organisations, (CSOs) who approached the court could be put under pressure to withdraw such suits ‘in the interest of peace”.
Newsmata.com.ng reports that emerging from the meeting, both Wike and Fubara told journalists that they had committed themselves to peace. Wike said gleefully, “I want to give God the glory that today is the 26th of June 2025, that peace has finally come to the state…We have all agreed to work together with the governor, and the governor also agreed to work together with all of us. We are members of the same political family”.
Fubara, on his part, said: “For me, it is very important that this day has come to be. What we need for the progress of Rivers State is peace.
“By the special grace of God, this night, with the help of Mr. President, and the agreement of the leaders of the state, peace has returned to Rivers State. We will do everything within our power to make sure that we sustain it this time around”.
But charting the way forward, Nweke said, “For me, the legal debates should be on as to whether the president has the power to suspend democratic structures, not just the executive arm of government, but the legislative arm of government. The democratic structures were actually suspended. That, for me, is an aberration. There’s no part of the constitution that allows that to happen. And we also can deduce from precedents of previous state of emergencies.
“And again, for me, I have always said legally speaking, I do not see anything that would justify what the president has done. But politically speaking, it may have saved the governor from being impeached and I stand to be challenged on this. And of course, the FCT Minister had said it severally. The governor would have been impeached by hook or crook and then the state would have been at war.
“And so, what the president had done by suspending the democratic structures, for me, was to avert imminent war that would have been unleashed on the state. But on the legal side, I do not see the need for that to have happened. And so, on the legal debate, of course, those who have gone to Supreme Court to challenge that, I want to encourage those who have gone to court to allow the matter to subsist so that that will add to enrich our legal lexicon and then the legal debates around state of emergencies, because how do we want to look at all of these?
“If I say politically speaking, what Mr. President had done had saved the governor and had saved Rivers people from the effect of war that would have been unleashed on them, but on the legal side, it negates the provisions of the Constitution. So, let it be tested there so that at the end of the day, this will be lesson for all of us who would have learned a lot”.
Prof Nweke said It would also have “enriched the legal literature around the state of emergencies” so that “any other person who could attempt it tomorrow, cannot attempt it”. He said the judicial intervention could be going on, on one side, even if they had been able to politically resolve their differences.
“So, those who have gone to court to challenge those, for me, it was not the governor Fubara who went to court to challenge that. The civil society organisations who are in court, the PDP Governors’ Forum who are in court, all of those, for me, and for the benefits of the students I teach, and then for the purposes of research on the political development of Nigeria, those litigations should go on so that a lot of people will learn a lot. We’ll be enriched in our literature”.
Also weighing in on the matter, Ojo, said “As Prof said, this was not a suit filed by either the suspended governor, or deputy governor, or the lawmakers. It’s by the Civil Society. So, there is that tendency for them to see it through, provided that pressure is not mounted on them to withdraw, because I also do know the political elites will stop at nothing. They might actually pressure those Civil Society arrow heads to go and withdraw that suit in the interest of peace.
“When you were reading out the eight-point resolution of December 2023, part of it was that all suits in court should be withdrawn. But while the governor respected that, the lawmakers did not do that, and they used it against him”.
Ojo said his expectations following the reconciliation are lessons that had been learnt, stressing that “the most important thing is, has the right lessons been learnt by everyone? Has the president learnt the right lesson because he has received a lot of knocks even from me because I wrote against it in my column in The Punch that he goofed. And I know he has the power to make a pronouncement on state of emergency. But the state of emergency or section 305 or thereabout does not provide that he has to suspend elected representatives of the people.
“Goodluck Jonathan did declare a state of emergency in Adamawa, Yobe, and Borno in 2013 or 2014. He never suspended the governors or the state House of Assembly. And that, in my own contemplation, is what the law expected, that, yes, you can declare state of emergency, but you need not suspend elected representatives of the people as President Obasanjo did, and President Tinubu has done”.
Asked what the terms of the agreement could be this time around, both Nweke and Ojo suggested that it would all be about the resources of the state.
It will be recalled that some of the initial resolutions included the withdrawal of all cases by Fubara; that there would be no impeachment by the lawmakers; the recognition of the Amaewhule-led leadership of the House; payment of lawmakers’ remunerations and where to sit, and the re-presentation of budget by the governor. Others were the restoration of commissioners that resigned because of the crisis, and that there shall not be no caretaker committees for the local government councils. The suspended governor had also accused Wike of power control, among other complaints.
Hazarding a guess, Prof. Nweke posited the said agreement would be aboult who controls what because according to him, “In politics, it’s about resources, both human and material. So, who controls what? Do you control material resources? Do you control human, that is, the structure? All of them constitute what politics is all about and then the interest. And so, whatever agreements that may have been reached will not be outside the structure and outside resources.
“Is it about deciding how to allocate resources, because politics is all about resources, values. Which one goes there, and who to take such decisions and all of those. And how about who gets what, how, and when? And it has to do with the resources, it also has to do with humans.
“And so, if you are controlling, as a governor, do you have to consult, maybe the godfather before you take certain decisions? You have a state executive council; who nominates names? How many should the governor nominate? How many should the godfather nominate to carry the interest of the people that are following him? And that’s all appointments; SAs, permanent secretaries and all of those. What percentage should be given to who and who, and all that.
“In terms of also contracts, of course, who should decide which contract or project should be embarked upon? And then, who does what? All of those things. So, you can’t take away the issues around the authoritative allocation of resources. You can’t take that out of what would be the agreements”.
Concurring with Nweke, Ojo lamented that in all these, the interest of the ordinary Rivers citizen is secondary.
According to him, “my question is always, where is the interest of the people in the midst of all of this? I think it’s just so unfortunate that while all of this is going on, the interest of the ordinary citizens of Rivers State, they don’t amount to much because the dramatis personae are more interested in political survival; how to maintain their hegemony on the state while the ordinary citizen suffers.
“Let me give you very many instances. From the sole administrator who is from Cross River State; he’s not from Rivers State, to even the just newly approved members of the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission, did you know that what I learnt was that none of them is actually from Rivers State? The members of Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission that the Senate just approved, was it yesterday or two days back. And that goes for even the ordinary citizens”.
Lamenting how the sole administrator, retired Vice-Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas had been administering the state, Ojo noted that “A lot of projects that should have been pro-poor that should have benefited the ordinary citizens could not be funded. The sole administrator has had to discontinue with some of those projects, because he feels that they are not priority projects for him. And he who wears the shoe knows where it pinches. The suspended governor that made the promise, that campaigned on certain agenda, because he’s out of the way, the sole administrator can cherry-pick on what he feels should be done or what should not be done.
7“So, in all of this, I hope the lessons have been learnt and when the suspension is lifted, that the ordinary citizens of Rivers State will be prioritised in terms of their welfare and security”.