The protracted face-off between Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, his predecessor and now Minister of the FCT, Nyesom Wike, and a fractured Home of Meeting has gone far past an influence tussle.
Findings revealed that the standoff between the political gladiators has paralysed governance, eroded public belief, and left almost the 9.8 million residents of the so-called Treasure Base of the Nation hostage to elite brinkmanship.
Whereas the media is feasting day by day on the feud, which has snowballed into division amongst members of the Rivers State Meeting, residents will not be discovering the event humorous.
Six months after Fubara assumed workplace, the state witnessed vital adjustments, notably throughout the civil service.
“PRIVATE BUSINESSES, BANKS, AND THE OIL SECTOR THRIVE ON STABILITY AND PROJECTIONS.RIVERS STATE IS LOSING OPPORTUNITIES, INVESTMENTS, AND RELEVANCE AS A RESULT OF THIS CRISIS.”
Lengthy-stagnant employees had been promoted, salaries had been elevated, pensioners obtained their entitlements, and the well being sector additionally skilled a notable increase.
Nonetheless, simply because the administration was getting ready to increase reforms to different areas of growth, a disaster erupted in October 2023 between the governor and his estranged godfather.
Since then, little seems to have functioned successfully, together with governance itself.
Till lately, the modest auto-repair storage of Akinwatimi Gabriel alongside Mile 3, near the Rivers State College roundabout, was a day by day theatre of hustle, automobiles jostling for house, prospects ready their flip, mechanics working towards time.
At present, the yard tells a special story. Empty areas outnumbered autos. Silence has changed the same old clang of instruments.
Akinwatimi’s expertise shouldn’t be an remoted misfortune however a metaphor for a state slowing to a crawl.
Throughout Port Harcourt and Native Authorities councils in Rivers State, livelihoods are being bruised by a political disaster that has drifted from the corridors of energy into the day by day lives of peculiar residents.
Mrs Fortune Reward realized this the laborious manner when she fell into an open gully close to the Rumosi Flyover, within the Obio/Akpor Native Authorities Space of the state, on a hoop highway venture awarded in 2023 by the erstwhile governor, Wike, however lengthy deserted.
These are just a few of the unseen repercussions of the protracted face-off between Governor Fubara, Wike, and a divided State Home of Meeting.
Whereas the political camps stay locked in a battle of supremacy, governance has taken a again seat.
Commissioners and appointees are nonetheless largely absent from their desks because of the crack between the chief and legislature.
Main tasks, amongst them the over N200 billion Ring Highway, are stalled, and traders’ confidence is evaporating. The result’s an economic system gasping for breath.
Cash now not circulates like earlier than; companies are shrinking, and Rivers State, as soon as a magnet for funding within the Niger Delta, now stands on its knees.
Past the rhetoric and energy performs lies a sobering reality: the best casualty of the political turmoil isn’t any particular person faction, however the collective well-being of the state itself—the residents.
Recall that the extended disaster successfully imposed a governance freeze.
The declaration of a state of emergency in March 2025 stalled funding, crippled empowerment programmes, and paralysed growth planning.
Rivers State has not handed a substantive finances since 2023.
The 2024 finances was nullified by the Supreme Court docket, plunging the state into additional uncertainty.
By 2025, the Nationwide Meeting-approved state finances supplied little aid, yielding minimal tangible outcomes.
Even tasks introduced beneath this association, led by the ex-State Administrator, Vice Admiral Ibok Ibas (RTD), struggled to take off.
The renovation of the State Secretariat, as an example, was awarded however did not start till the top of Ibas’ emergency rule, underscoring the depth of administrative paralysis.
Nonetheless, upon coming back from emergency rule, Fubara’s administration started renovating the deplorable State Secretariat.
And not using a functioning fiscal framework or coordinated executive-legislative engagement, coverage execution has remained largely theoretical.
Newest flashpoint
In January, the protracted feud between Wike, Fubara, and the state lawmakers escalated right into a recent impeachment disaster, worsening the wrestle for political management of the state following Fubara’s defection to the federal government-controlled All Progressives Congress.
On January 8, 2026, the Rivers State Home of Meeting, led by Speaker Martins Amaewhule, a political ally of Wike, initiated a 3rd impeachment course of towards Fubara and his deputy, Ngozi Odu.
The lawmakers accused the chief of gross misconduct, together with the purported expenditure of public funds with out legislative approval, and directed the State chief choose, Justice Simeon Amadi, to arrange a panel to research the allegations.
Choose Amadi declined the request, stating that he was legally restrained from appearing as a consequence of subsisting interim injunctions issued by a Excessive Court docket.
The Governor and his deputy Governor, Odu, had filed a separate swimsuit on January 16, difficult the impeachment course of, notably the alleged improper service of notices of allegations.
Nonetheless, the disaster appears to not be ending anytime quickly, as a Rivers State Excessive Court docket presided by Justice Florence Fiberesima adjourned the swimsuit by the governor and the deputy indefinitely, following affirmation that two separate appeals by the lawmakers have been formally entered on the appellate court docket.
Past the economic system, the disaster has fractured the social cloth.
The Rivers disaster has uncovered a structural weak point in political illustration.
The unfolding drama confirmed that many elected and appointed officers seem extra accountable to their sponsors than to the voters they signify.
Their loyalty is to those that endorsed them, on the expense of the populace, thereby hollowing out democratic duty.
The political wrestle has additionally polarised residents, escalating distrust and sharply dividing the folks.
These divisions now play out on the grassroots.
Sadly, community-level alternatives, jobs, contracts, growth tasks, and growth interventions are more and more decided by political loyalty quite than collective want.
As of at the moment in Rivers, advantages meant for the broader public are perceived to be channelled to celebration faithfuls and cronies, reinforcing exclusion and deepening resentment.
Governance, on this sense, has turn into partisan even on the lowest ranges.
Paradoxically, the state stays largely peaceable; there isn’t a widespread violence, no breakdown of legislation and order.
Safety presence stays seen, although not with out common extortions from motorists.
What the state is experiencing shouldn’t be chaos, however stagnation.
Companies are shrinking, money circulation is thinning, and {economic} exercise is dulled by the absence of decisive governance.
That is evident in the price of political paralysis, indicating that Rivers is bleeding from negligence and extended political preventing.
With governance largely grounded, the overriding focus of the warring political camps in Rivers State seems to be survival and supremacy quite than service.
Power that ought to be directed at stabilising the economic system and restoring public confidence has been consumed by manoeuvres geared toward successful the political battle.
Governor Fubara has repeatedly signalled an intention to entrench good governance and assert institutional independence.
Nonetheless, his efforts have been constrained by relentless distractions, starting from a hostile State Home of Meeting and inner celebration tensions to sustained strain from Wike’s political camp.
In such a charged environment, navigating the equipment of presidency and reviving a slowing state has confirmed exceedingly troublesome.
Whereas a section of the inhabitants views Fubara as a frontrunner beneath strain, constrained by Wike’s affect, others consider the governor has did not act with the sincerity and political deftness required to handle the transition of energy.
These opposing narratives have filtered right down to the grassroots, shaping interactions on the neighborhood degree.
A number of residents and stakeholders in Rivers State say the lingering political disaster is exacting a heavy toll on the state’s economic system, governance, and social cohesion.
Recounting his expertise, a Port Harcourt–based mostly civil society chief and Government Director of the Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC–Nigeria), Fyneface Dumnamene Fyneface, lamented that the political standoff has considerably disrupted enterprise actions, slowed {economic} development, and discouraged funding.
In accordance with him, the obvious absence of efficient governance, a possibility price of the disaster, has stalled public tasks and weakened {economic} circulation.
“Most commissioners and political appointees will not be totally in workplace, whereas main tasks, together with the over N200 billion Ring Highway, are at a standstill. Buyers are staying away as a consequence of instability, and the state economic system is regularly grinding to a halt,” he stated.
Fyneface famous that the disaster has additionally affected civil society organisations working within the state.
He defined that many worldwide growth companions now classify Rivers as a high-risk surroundings, resulting in the suspension or outright cancellation of tasks and funding.
“Donors are reluctant to commit sources the place political uncertainty threatens venture implementation. This has negatively affected our work, our organisation, and the broader civil society house, with no clear finish to the disaster in sight,” he added.
On the political roots of the battle, he argued that Fubara’s refusal to undergo what he described as prebendal calls for from Wike lies on the coronary heart of the disaster.
He maintained that the governor’s stance The governor’s stance aligns with public curiosity, accounting for the favored assist he enjoys throughout the state.
Equally, a journalist and gender advocate, Mrs Daba Benebo, stated the disaster has affected girls and their kids, particularly with the excessive price of foodstuffs and fewer revenue.
She lamented that the state has been destabilised by what she described because the egocentric pursuits of political actors.
She noticed that the disaster has deepened divisions amongst residents, heightened hate speech, and revived ethnic rivalries between upland and riverine communities.
“Politics has now filtered into communities. Alternatives meant for everybody are given solely to celebration loyalists and their associates,” she stated, including that she has regularly misplaced curiosity in political participation.
A lecturer within the Division of Journalism and Media Research on the College of Port Harcourt, Otikor Samuel, described the battle as a wrestle for political survival quite than public good.
“Whether or not Wike introduced Fubara to energy or not is immaterial. What issues is that Governor Fubara will in the end be judged on his stewardship. He seems decided to go away a legacy regardless of the obstacles positioned earlier than him,” he stated.
A retired civil servant and coverage analyst, Blessing Wikina, stated the disaster displays a deep-seated worry of political irrelevance.
He warned that the involvement of the State Home of Meeting, in what he described as a disregard for the precept of separation of powers, might additional destabilise the state’s economic system.
“Non-public companies, banks and the oil sector thrive on stability and projections. Rivers State is shedding alternatives, investments and relevance because of this disaster,” he stated.
On the grassroots degree, the {economic} impression is already evident.
An auto mechanic, Akinwatimi Gabriel, stated patronage has declined sharply as residents wrestle with dwindling incomes.
A foodstuff dealer, Mrs Fortune Reward, who lately sustained accidents after falling into ditches close to the deserted Rumosi flyover venture, lamented the gradual tempo of growth and urged the federal government to finish stalled infrastructure.
Hairdressers and barbers in Mile 2, Diobu, Port Harcourt, Kingsley and Abigail stated they generally go days with out prospects, a scenario they attributed to {economic} hardship attributable to the unabated political disaster.
Professor Clement Asadu of the College of Port Harcourt described the political battle as largely self-serving.
“Politics right here is pushed by private ambition quite than statesmanship. Buyers are understandably afraid as a result of they can’t predict what’s going to occur subsequent,” he stated.
Method Ahead
Dr Fyneface referred to as on the FCT Minister to permit Governor Fubara the house to manipulate, insisting that Rivers State “shouldn’t be the non-public property of any particular person.”
He suggested political actors to shelve impeachment threats and permit the voters to resolve the governor’s destiny on the polls in 2027.
Mrs Benebo, on her half, burdened the necessity for robust establishments quite than robust people.
She urged the Unbiased Nationwide Electoral Fee (INEC), the judiciary, and safety companies to behave with out worry or favour, whereas encouraging residents to stay vigilant and actively demand accountability.
In impact, Rivers is trapped in a cycle the place political contestation has overwhelmed governance.
Till consideration shifts from political brinkmanship to institutional stability, the state’s capability to plan, make investments, and ship dividends of democracy will stay severely constrained.