Atiku Blasts Tinubu Over State of Emergency in Rivers, Says It’s ‘Political Manipulation’

Atiku has berated Tinubu for declaring a State of Emergency in Rivers.

Epe Insights had reported earlier that the President of Nigeria, Bola Tinubu, declared a state of emergency in Rivers State, south-south Nigeria.

The President announced this in a nationwide broadcast on Tuesday evening, March 18, 2025, citing the political crisis and instability in the state as the reason for his decision.

President Tinubu said the governor of the State, Siminalayi Fubara; his deputy, Ngozi Odu; and all members of the Rivers assembly are “hereby suspended for an initial period of six months”.

“Having soberly reflected on and evaluated the political situation in Rivers State and the Governor and Deputy Governor of Rivers State having failed to make a request to me as President to issue this proclamation as required by section 305(5) of the 1999 Constitution as amended, it has become inevitably compelling for me to invoke the provision of section 305 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as amended, to declare a state of emergency in Rivers State with effect from today, 18th March, 2025 and I so do,”  President Tinubu said.

In the broadcast, President Tinubu announced the appointment of retired Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas, a former chief of naval staff, as the administrator of Rivers State.

According to the broadcast, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas will be responsible for overseeing the affairs of Rivers State for at least six months.

President Tinubu said the administrator will manage the state without enacting new laws but may issue regulations subject to federal executive council approval and presidential promulgation.

The President said the judicial arm of Rivers state remains unaffected and will continue its constitutional duties.

He said his intervention, published in the federal gazette and shared with the national assembly, seeks to restore peace and order in the troubled state.

“The administrator will not make any new laws. He will, however, be free to formulate regulations as may be found necessary to do his job, but such regulations will need to be considered and approved by the Federal Executive Council and promulgated by the president for the state,” the president said in a televised broadcast.

Reacting to the declaration, Atiku Abubakar, a former Vice President of Nigeria, described it as an assault on democracy that must be condemned in the strongest terms.

Atiku, who reacted on his verified Facebook page, noted that the declaration is a political manipulation, carried out in bad faith.

According to him, President Bola Tinubu cannot evade responsibility for the chaos his administration has he either enabled or failed to prevent it in Rivers State.

The former vice president further noted that if federal infrastructure in Rivers has been compromised, the President should bear full responsibility, and rather than punish the people of Rivers State with a state of emergency.

Atiku said, “The declaration of a state of emergency in Rivers State reeks of political manipulation and outright bad faith.

“Anyone paying attention to the unfolding crisis knows that Bola Tinubu has been a vested partisan actor in the political turmoil engulfing Rivers. His blatant refusal — or calculated negligence — in preventing this escalation is nothing short of disgraceful.

“Beyond the political scheming in Rivers, the brazen security breaches that led to the condemnable destruction of national infrastructure in the state land squarely on the President’s desk.

“Tinubu cannot evade responsibility for the chaos his administration has either enabled or failed to prevent.

“It is an unforgivable failure that under Tinubu’s watch, the Niger Delta has been thrown back into an era of violent unrest and instability — undoing the hard-won peace secured by the late President Umaru Yar’Adua. Years of progress have been recklessly erased in pursuit of selfish political calculations.

“If federal infrastructure in Rivers has been compromised, the President bears full responsibility. Punishing the people of Rivers State just to serve the political gamesmanship between the governor and Tinubu’s enablers in the federal government is nothing less than an assault on democracy and must be condemned in the strongest terms,” the statement added.