•Tinubu, Fubara and Amaewhule
President Bola Tinubu has announced the suspension of emergency rule in Rivers State, which began six months ago.
Tinubu, who announced this in a statement he signed today, explained that from the intelligence available to him, there was a new spirit of understanding, “a robust readiness, and potent enthusiasm on the part of all the stakeholders in Rivers State for an immediate return to democratic governance”.
This, he said, was undoubtedly a welcome development for him and a remarkable achievement for the country, reports Channels TV.
“I therefore do not see why the state of emergency should exist a day longer than the six months I had pronounced at the beginning of it.
“It therefore gives me great pleasure to declare that the emergency in Rivers State of Nigeria shall end with effect from midnight today. The Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, the deputy governor, Ngozi Nma Odu, and members of the Rivers State House of Assembly, and the Speaker, Martins Amaewhule, will resume work in their offices from 18 September 2025,” said Tinubu.
He recalled that the state of emergency in Rivers became inevitable following what he described as a “total paralysis of governance” in Rivers that left the governor and the House of Assembly unable to work together.
The president said the crisis also affected critical economic assets of the state, including oil pipelines, which were being vandalised.
He stated that his intervention and that of other well-meaning Nigerians to resolve the conflict proved abortive as both sides stuck to their guns to the detriment of peace and development of Rivers State.
“The State House of Assembly was crisis-ridden, such that members of the House were divided into two groups. Four members worked with the governor, while 27 members opposed the governor.
“The latter group supported the Speaker. As a result, the governor could not present any Appropriation Bill to the House, to enable him to access funds to run Rivers State’s affairs.
“That serious constitutional impasse brought governance in the State to a standstill. Even the Supreme Court, in one of its judgments in a series of cases filed by the executive and the legislative arms of Rivers State against each other, held that there was no government in Rivers State” Tinubu said.
“It therefore became painfully inevitable that to arrest the drift towards anarchy in Rivers State, I was obligated to invoke the powers conferred on me by Section 305 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, to proclaim the state of emergency.
“The offices of the Governor, Deputy Governor, and elected members of the State House of Assembly were suspended for six months in the first instance. The six months expire today, September 17, 2025,” he added.
The president commended the National Assembly for taking steps immediately, as required by the Constitution, to approve the declaration in the interest of peace and order in Rivers State, after critically evaluating the justification for the proclamation.
He also thanked traditional rulers and the people of Rivers for their support from the date of the declaration of the state of emergency until it ended.
‘I’m Aware of Criticisms’
Tinubu further stated that he was aware that there were a few voices of dissent against the proclamation, which he said led to their instituting over 40 cases in the courts in Abuja, Port Harcourt, and Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, to invalidate the declaration.
But he added that it would have been a colossal failure on his part as president not to have made the proclamation.
“That is the way it should be in a democratic setting. Some cases are still pending in the courts as of today. But what needs to be said is that the power to declare a state of emergency is an inbuilt constitutional tool to address situations of actual or threatened breakdown of public order and public safety, which require extraordinary measures to return the state to peace, order and security.
“Considered objectively, we had reached that situation of total breakdown of public order and public safety in Rivers State, as shown in the judgment of the Supreme Court on the disputes between the executive and the Legislative arm of Rivers State. It would have been a colossal failure on my part as President not to have made that proclamation,” Tinubu said in his statement.
“As a stakeholder in democratic governance, I believe that the need for a harmonious existence and relationship between the executive and the legislature is key to a successful government, whether at the state or national level. The people who voted us into power expect to reap the fruits of democracy.
“However, that expectation will remain unrealisable in an atmosphere of violence, anarchy, and insecurity borne by misguided political activism and Machiavellian manipulations among the stakeholders,” he added.
