News
Will Fubara return as Rivers Governor?
By Ikechukwu Amaechi
The question that continues to agitate many minds in Nigeria today is: Will Siminalayi Fubara return as the governor of Rivers State after serving the six-month suspension imperiously slammed on him by President Bola Tinubu on Tuesday, March 18?
I doubt!
I have a hunch he won’t be reinstated by those who contemptuously and unconstitutionally shoved him off his high perch, unless Nigerians show proof that they will no longer tolerate the impunity of the Tinubu presidency as South Koreans did recently.
On June 3, South Korea will hold a snap presidential election to choose President Yoon Suk Yeol’s successor after the conservative leader was ousted over his imposition of martial law in December 2024. The announcement from acting President Han Duck-soo came four days after the country’s Constitutional Court – equivalent of Nigeria’s Supreme Court – unanimously removed Yoon from office.
Just like Tinubu’s narrow victory in the 2023 presidential election, the former President Yoon narrowly defeated Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party by less than a percentage point on March 9, 2022 and assumed office in May. Going by the country’s presidential term, which has been set at five years since 1988, he should have left office on May 10, 2027.
But like Tinubu in Rivers State, the 64-year-old Yoon made an unprecedented power grab on December 3, 2024 when he declared martial law in South Korea, sending hundreds of soldiers and police officers to the National Assembly on the excuse that he sought to maintain order, a move which shocked all.
But hearkening to the admonition of John Philpot Curran, an Irish lawyer, who famously stated that “the condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance” in a July 10, 1790 speech in Dublin, the South Korean lawmakers acutely aware that their president had just carried out a “coup” by taking actions “beyond the powers provided in the constitution,” indignantly stepped up to the legislative plate and the state of emergency and concomitant martial law only lasted about six hours as parliament eventually voted to block the decree.
Not even President Yoon’s excuse that martial law was needed to defend the country from nuclear-armed North Korea, pro-North anti-state forces, and protect its free constitutional order, even when he cited no specific threats, could sway the piqued lawmakers, who not only suspended his presidential powers but voted to impeach him on December 14, 2024. In January, he was arrested and indicted by prosecutors on alleged rebellion.
The hunter, having become the hunted, the disgraced president went to court to quash his impeachment. On Friday, April 4, South Korea’s apex court confirmed his dismissal and upheld his impeachment on the ground that he “violated his duty as commander-in-chief by mobilising troops” when he declared martial law.
Calling the former president’s action “a serious challenge to democracy,” Acting Chief Justice Moon Hyung-bae said: “(Yoon) committed a grave betrayal of the people’s trust.” Human Rights Watch concurred, calling the ruling a win for the country’s resilience, quest for human rights and democratic values.
In a message to South Koreans through his lawyers shortly after the ruling, a humbled Yoon apologised: “I am so sorry and regretful that I wasn’t able to live up to your expectations.”
Now, President Yoon failed in his gambit because the critical institutions of the Korean State – legislature and judiciary – held him to account.
Contrast that with Tinubu’s impunity on the belief that “the heavens will not fall” and you will appreciate why Nigeria’s democracy is in grave danger.
On Tuesday, March 18, 2025, President Tinubu exercised powers he does not have by imposing a state of emergency in Rivers State and suspending Governor Fubara, his deputy, Ngozi Odu, and all elected members of the House of Assembly for “an initial period of six months.” The implication is that if after the “initial period of six months,” Tinubu is not convinced that his ultimate goal has been achieved, he may well extend the suspension.
Tinubu said the decision was taken to restore stability in the state that has been witnessing political turmoil as a result of the disagreement between the governor and the lawmakers. But he was being economical with the truth, which is: Fubara has disagreement with his predecessor, Nyesom Wike, who happens to be Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Tinubu’s employee.
Having successfully executed a coup d’état in one of the country’s federating units by the sudden and unlawful seizure of power from a democratically elected government with the apparent acquiescence of both the National Assembly and Supreme Court, Tinubu went ahead to unilaterally and unconstitutionally appoint former Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ette Ibas (retd.) as the sole administrator and rolled out military tanks on the streets to enforce his will.
On Wednesday, March 19, Tinubu and his cabal stretched the illegality when he swore in Ibas at Aso Rock cheered by his Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, and other aides. Nobody knows what Oath of Office Ibas took.
And although Tinubu claims that his action was informed by the security situation in Rivers State and the need to forestall a total breakdown of law and order, no one knows what mandate he gave his sole administrator. Meanwhile, to consolidate power, the sole administrator appointed a serving Naval Officer, Commodore Aminu Shehu, as his Chief of Staff.
Since then, Ibas has been systemically and diligently dismantling all the institutions of governance in Rivers. Having been given all the money accruing to the state government which was hitherto seized, the sole administrator is proposing a fresh budget, a proposition that has alarmed the House of Representatives.
Last week, he suspended all MDA heads and dissolved boards with immediate effect. He also cancelled all pending procurement and tender processes. But on Wednesday, April 9, he unilaterally announced the reconstitution of some of the boards, populating them with Wike’s loyalists.
It is laughable that the same Ibas who claimed the cancellation of all pending procurements became necessary following the Supreme Court judgement and the absence of an appropriation law, and even went as far as directing all MDAs that carried out such tender processes for projects to immediately refund such fees to the respective contractors, has been spending the billions of naira Tinubu is throwing on his laps without appropriation.
He has also appointed sole administrators to take charge of the 23 local government areas and reconstituted the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission, RISIEC, with Dr. Michael Odey as Chairman.
Sadly, these appointments were announced barely 24 hours after a Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt restrained him from doing so even as he continues to evade service of court documents.
Vice Admiral Ibas’ actions since he assumed the sole administratorship of Rivers, a patently illegal usurpation of power in a supposed democracy, as it relates to the release and appropriation of state funds violates Sections 120 and 121 of the Nigerian Constitution, particularly in the light of the recent Supreme Court ruling on the same matter.
Truth be told, right now, there is no accountability and transparency in the handling of Rivers State resources. What is happening is tantamount to stealing the people’s patrimony. Meanwhile, as Tinubu disingenuously blames Fubara for all the crisis, quarantining him in Port Harcourt, Wike, the real villain is having a ball and threatening not only Rivers but the entire Niger Delta.
This week, Wike hosted the suspended lawmakers to a lavish dinner in the United Kingdom. They are said to be in the UK for “legislative capacity building,” having left Nigeria on Sunday night.
So, as the days roll by and the Rivers sole administrator continues to consolidate power on behalf of those who sent him on the unsavory mission, the question that is concentrating many minds is: what happens after six months?
Anyone who believes that after six months, Tinubu will ask Fubara to resume office must be living in a fool’s paradise. It won’t happen. If that was the idea, then there would have been no need for the state of emergency in the first place. All that was needed to solve the contrived political crisis would have been for Tinubu to tell his minister to steer clear of Rivers State and allow Fubara to exercise the mandate given to him by the electorate since he has a full-time job in Abuja.
But Tinubu didn’t because he knows that the game plan is to deny the people the right to choose who governs them, a game he is adept at. The people must brace up for the battle ahead. In South Korea, the institutions of state did the job on behalf of the people. In Nigeria, those same institutions – the Godswill Akpabio-led National Assembly and the Supreme Court – are reluctant to do their job. As it is, the only thing that can bring Fubara back to power is the people’s righteous anger.
Amaechi, prolific journalist, is the publisher of The Niche!
By Sunny Igboanugo
Today, November 6, 2025, the campaigns end for all the political parties that will participate in the governorship election, scheduled for Saturday. These parties have put their messages out and now it is decision time. That decision is in your hands. The fate of Anambra is firmly in your hands. How do you go?
But as you ruminate on what you have heard these past few weeks and months it is apposite to pause, take a deep breath and look at the issues clearly. You must reflect on how the journey started, where you were yesterday, where you are today and where you are likely to be tomorrow, given the variables before you. Take time to look at all sides of the coin.
Four years ago, faced with the same setting you donated your votes to Charles Chukwuma Soludo. You didn’t make that choice in a vacuum against a set of agreements. Now rev your minds and recall the key issues against which you took that vital position and ponder on them. I’ll help you.
Security: Were you not promised that thenceforth, you were going to sleep with both eyes closed? Are you doing so today?
Lest we forget: In December 2024, Reverend Father Emmanuel Obimma, the outspoken Catholic cleric, popularly known as Ebubemuonso declared Charles Chukwuma Soludo as possessed of a reprobate spirit. Please, google what that expression means. I’ve just done and what I found are not palatable at all. Now, why would a clergyman, no less a Catholic cleric, known for reticence and measured approach go that far to use such an extreme phrase to capture the persona of the governor?
The answers are not farfetched. At the time Ebubemuonso spoke, he was reflecting on the parlous state of security in the state, occasioned by the massive carnage, kidnappings and other forms of high crimes and the apparent insensitivity, if not the complicity of the government of Soludo towards tackling it.
In fact, at that time, one of the brother-priests of the vocal cleric, who just returned to Nigeria from the US, was undergoing a testy time in the hands of kidnappers who abducted him at a filling station, where he had packed to buy petrol.
Just as the wincing of the abducted priest was reverberating across the state and beyond, news again broke of another high-profile case – the seizure of Justice Azuka, member representing Onitsha North 1 constituency at the Anambra State House of Assembly, with the government, still, paying scant heed to the development.
Obimma’s heightened frustration was therefore not only obvious, but understandable. He also not only spoke out, but loudly and clearly. Against the backdrop of his palpably lacerating comments, the government was finally roused to action from its hitherto slumbering mode.
The result, after unleashing a horde of attack dogs against the priest and the few other compatriots, who cared to speak out, was the birthing of Operation Udogachi, what it termed the Anambra Homeland Security Laws, under which the now dreaded Agunechemba outfit currently operates.
But compatriots, what is the result? Is Anambra State safer today, even with the frenzy and audacious commentaries that flowed ceaselessly from the government? I leave you to answer. But before you do, consider the fate of that lawmaker. Yes! What has happened to those people you were told were the culprits in his abduction and subsequent murder?
Yes! Azuka’s remains were later recovered at the foot of the Second Niger Bridge, Onitsha, several weeks later in February – meaning that he was actually in the confinement of his assailants for a long time without rescue. Yes! A lot of fever was generated by the news of the arrest of the abductors. But how has it ended? The matter, as we say here in Nigeria, has entered voicemail.
Indeed, the last I heard of that case was that some of the said culprits escaped from police custody. Now, you needed hear the circumstances under which they were said to have made good their escape. Even a complete retard – an irredeemable imbecile or Mongolian idiot, would be bemused with their incredulous tale.
But let us assume, though difficult to believe that this official side of this sordid story, is credible, have you heard anything else about the other culprits. Shouldn’t their trial have been concluded before now in court and their fate decided? Has Azuka gotten any form of justice.
Now, I ask, my dear compatriots, is this the government you’re going to endorse on Saturday? Do you not smell a rat? Is it not obvious that something is amiss? Can you trust this government? You must consider the answers to these questions. It is not only imperative; you have a right to ask them as well as provide the answers. Yes! It is your right!
Economy:
Lest we forget: By this time four years ago, you were told that in four years, Anambra would be transformed into the Dubai-Taiwan of Africa. Has that happened? Is there any part of Anambra State that resembles Abuja, Accra or even Lome, not to talk about Dubai or Taiwan? Is there any likelihood that in the next 50 years at the pace of development any part of Anambra would look a fraction of Dubai? Aren’t you smelling deceit? Senator Natasha’s Airport antics and the theatre of distraction
Today, having failed woefully to deliver, they have tactfully changed the narrative. They now tell you that they are building the FOUNDATION. Foundation? Is it in the Uga-Amawbia Road – that unending project that is already undergoing patches and rehabilitation in many areas even before it is concluded?
Compatriots, take a drive through major streets in Awka, Nnewi, Onitsha and other major places in Anambra to understand the psychology and philosophy of the Soludo government. It’ll explain the obvious panic mode that you see today around Soludo and his officials. You’ll begin to realise the reason for you to apply your votes wisely on Saturday.
Ask yourself, what would make a government go into the frenzy of knocking down people’s buildings, and business places including INNOSON Motors Showroom on the pretence of dualising their road, only to engage in the horse and buggy pace the project has witnessed?
You must have heard about the Anyamelum hospital saga, where your dear governor, claimed to have commissioned the “first-ever General Hospital. Lacing it with salt and pepper, our dear Charlie Nwa Mgbafor regaled his audience with the seducing tale of how he not only personally visited the patients upon whom four surgeries were performed “in one day, free of charge,” but gave them “something” for their transportation back home?
Didn’t you hear how this tale was busted no sooner thereafter with video evidence that your governor lied and that the hospital was still in fact uncompleted, let alone having the more than 200 patients and the 65 staff the governor claimed? How does that resonate with you.
Compatriots! Did you also miss the drama of communities donating money to his campaigns? How much did you contribute in the N250 million your community contributed in aide of support for him to return as governor. My Ogidi compatriots, how much did you donate? Was it to thank the governor for abandoning your community that was almost swallowed by flood recently.
To you students of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, you were said to have also donated from your savings to “encourage” your governor and to thank him. It was your gesture of gratitude that he has refused to grant you bursary award or any form of financial relief.
Welfare:
Lest we forget: Compatriots, are you aware that Anambra is among the very few states in Nigeria that is not paying minimum wage. What do you say to a professor who knows the difference between the quality of money as against the quantity of money posting such a dismal outing?
Ndi-Anambra, I do not wish this letter to be too long. So, let me stop here. But before then, you may have heard your governor suggest that only first-class brains in terms of education are fit to govern you. He readily cites Nnamdi Azikiwe, Odumegwu Ojukwu, Akwaeke Abyssinia Nwafor Orizu, Chinua Achebe and the rest. But let me ask which of these great sons of the land has he mimicked in terms of courage and character.
Zik, it was who confronted the white man and brought independence to Nigeria. Ojukwu, for three good years commanded an army which withstood the whole world – Nigeria, Egypt, United Kingdom, United States and even Russia, who either took direct part in the attempt to annihilate his people or provided deadly weapons to carry out the blitzkrieg that became their lot under the Biafran effort.
What about Nwafor Orizu? Please read up his historic courage as Senate President during the January 1966 coup saga. Now, were you not here when twice, Chinua Achebe threw the national honours awarded him by the Federal Government to their faces? Could this be said of your governor?
If high education is all it takes to be in governance why should the most arguably educated and endowed governor be trembling before a President whose own certificates have remained a subject of controversy and who has not shown publicly proof of primary school education, let alone other levels such attainments, simply because you rely on him for your second term. Where is the courage – the character of Zik, Ikemba and Ugobelunenuoji?
Yes! Our dear governor is a Professor of Economics – of world renown at that – consulting for the highest global institutions. But where has that led us? How better is he head-on with those he claimed to be illiterates and should never be allowed near governance. Has he discharged himself in anyway to suggest his best-brain education?
If yes, in what way? Is it in awarding road contracts? Even a confirmed retard could put pen on paper to award contracts for roads and other projects – not to talk of those that have managed their own businesses, employed labour and empowered people therefrom. So, where does the education bragging rights derive? Wherein lies the prestige of high education when all we see is the crudest form of government business.
Would Zik, et al, condone the breaking of people’s spines with aka-odo or engage in market-women altercations such as we have witnessed today? Would Achebe be silent after the NYSC lady was stripped to her birthday suit? Ponder on this, my people. You have more than 72 hours to do so.
As you approach the polling booth to cast your votes, ask yourself, where are the Ocha Brigade men that slaughtered four people in Onitsha, including a pregnant woman? What has happened to the culprits that killed the Owelle Ezukala three and other victims of trigger-happy state-sponsored actors? Where are those who killed Okechukwu Akanaeme? How come nobody has heard about the ruffians that stripped the NYSC lady?
Since Dubai-Taiwan is no longer feasible or possible, the next question is what next? What will be the fate of Anambra in the hands of Soludo, four years on if you donate that vote to him? Would you risk it? Think about it!
My name is Sunny Igboanugo – The Tiny Voice!
President Bola Tinubu has declared a state of emergency on the training facilities of Nigeria’s internal security agencies, citing their severely outdated condition and concerns about operational effectiveness.
The declaration covers training institutions operated by the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), and other domestic security agencies across the country.
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The announcement came as a high-level National Economic Council (NEC) ad-hoc committee, led by Enugu State Governor Peter Mbah, conducted on-site inspections of security training facilities in Lagos on Tuesday.
Governor Mbah revealed the president’s decision during the facility tour, emphasizing the urgency of addressing the deteriorating infrastructure.
“President Bola Tinubu has announced a state of emergency regarding the training facilities of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), and other internal security agencies,” Governor Mbah stated. “He highlighted the necessity for this action due to the facilities’ outdated state, which raises concerns about their effectiveness.”
Ogun State Governor Prince Dapo Abiodun, who joined the inspection tour, disclosed that the committee has been given a tight 30-day timeline to submit a comprehensive report to the National Economic Council for action.
The committee’s membership includes former Inspector General of Police Alkali Usman Baba, who serves as secretary, and Assistant Inspector General of Police Olatunji Disu, who oversees the Special Protection Unit (SPU).
The state of emergency declaration reflects growing concern that inadequate training infrastructure may be undermining the preparedness and professionalism of Nigeria’s security forces at a time when the country faces multiple security challenges, including insurgency in the northeast, banditry in the northwest, and kidnapping across various regions.
Outdated facilities typically lack modern training equipment, proper accommodation for recruits, adequate classrooms, and contemporary simulation technologies essential for preparing security personnel for complex operational environments.
The NEC committee is expected to assess the extent of infrastructural decay, determine funding requirements for comprehensive rehabilitation, and propose a roadmap for bringing the facilities up to international standards.
The 30-day deadline suggests the administration views the reform of security training infrastructure as an urgent national priority requiring immediate intervention.
The last hours are nigh! Here is another chance! Open letter to Ndi-Anambra
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