Emergency Rule, Political Aftershocks: Inside South-South’s 2025 Power Reset
By NJORIGE LYNUS
THE South-South in 2025 became Nigeria’s most volatile political theatre, with Rivers State serving as ground zero. President Bola Tinubu’s declaration of emergency rule — suspending Governor Siminalayi Fubara, his deputy, and the entire Rivers House of Assembly — was the boldest constitutional intervention in the region since 1999. The appointment of retired naval chief Ibok-Ette Ibas as Sole Administrator escalated public outrage, triggering mass protests and sharp institutional backlash, including from the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) and the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), which warned against democratic erosion.
The crisis stemmed from a prolonged power struggle between Fubara and his predecessor-turned-FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, whose political influence split the assembly into rival factions and produced two failed impeachment attempts. While emergency rule was eventually lifted after mediated reconciliation, its aftermath delivered a more decisive political statement — Fubara defected from the PDP to the APC, confirming that political survival, not ideology, now determines alignment in Rivers politics.
The Rivers crisis foreshadowed a wider regional collapse of the PDP’s 25-year dominance. Delta, Akwa Ibom, and Bayelsa followed similar trajectories, not through voter revolt, but elite power migration toward federal influence. The region once considered the PDP’s electoral backbone effectively realigned without an election, raising deeper concerns about the future of party identity and democratic loyalty.
