Fubara, Rivers Assembly, and the endless war

Once beaten, twice shy, so goes the saying. It is time-tested because it follows the human’s natural order. When a child attempts to play with naked fire, the elders around would warn him or her to stay clear, but at a point when they decide to teach him practical life lessons, they allow him to get exposed, and as soon as he got his fingers burnt, he realised that fire is something to be dreaded. From that day, the child will never walk around fire carelessly. 

In Rivers State, that natural order is about to be challenged as far as the relationship between Governor Siminalayi Fubara and the Rivers State House of Assembly is concerned.  In March 2025, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu declared a six-month state of emergency in Rivers State, removing the governor and the House of Assembly, on account of the protracted political battle in the state. The Assembly had commenced an impeachment process against the governor in September 2024, leading to relentless battles that pitched the godson, Fubara, against his political godfather and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, and the assembly.  On the heels of the brouhaha caused by the impeachment drama that unfolded between September 2024 and March 2025, President Tinubu announced the dissolution of democratic structures in the state and the imposition of a state of emergency. Fubara and the lawmakers were then sent on six months forced leave, which was terminated in September 2025. That period of interregnum was supposed to have taught all the parties practical political lessons that would make peaceful coexistence easily achievable.

But reports emanating from Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, are anything but suggesting that lessons were learnt from the forced holiday imposed by the state of emergency of 2025. On Thursday, the Rivers State House of Assembly launched another impeachment drive against Governor Fubara, raising eight impeachable offences.  According to the Martin Amaewhule-led House of Assembly, Governor Fubara and his deputy, Prof. Ngozi Odu, were guilty of gross misconduct as listed by the Majority Leader of the House, Major Jack.

Hon. Jack, who represents Akuku-Toru I Constituency, while reading out the eight-point offences, said that the impeachment notice was in line with Section 188 of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution (as amended). According to him, the notice dated 5 January 2026 was signed by 26 lawmakers.  He accused the governor of gross misconduct, including the demolition of the assembly complex, unapproved budgetary spending, withholding funds meant for the Rivers Assembly Service Commission, refusal to obey the Supreme Court’s ruling on the financial autonomy of the House, and seizure of the salaries of the Clerk of the Rivers House of Assembly, Emeka Amadi.

After listening to the impeachment notice, Speaker Amaewhule told his colleagues: “Distinguished colleagues, I’m now in receipt of this letter and pursuant to the sections of the 1999 Constitution as amended, I will ensure that this letter is forwarded to His Excellency Siminalayi Fubara within seven days.”

After the presentation of the notice to the governor, another member, the Deputy Leader of the House, Somiari‑Stewart, brought forward the notice of gross misconduct against Fubara’s deputy, Professor Odu.  Like that of Fubara, the deputy’s notice was also signed by 26 members, with the allegations including reckless and unconstitutional spending of public funds, obstruction of the assembly from performing its constitutional duties in line with the 1999 Constitution, and allegedly conniving to allow unauthorised persons to occupy offices without proper screening by the House.  The lawmakers also stated that they have placed the initial demand for the presentation of the 2026 budget on hold, following the issuance of the impeachment notice.

Though a highly politicised process, the House of Assembly of a state is empowered to impeach the governor and the deputy, after raising allegations bothering on gross misconduct. The articles constituting the said gross misconduct are to be determined by the house in question. In the instant case, even when the allegations are being given constitutional backing, it is known to all that they are engineered by political differences between the governor and the Rivers State House of Assembly on one hand and the godfather of the state on another-Nyesom Wike.

While legal minds will surely dwell on this matter extensively, it is worthy to make some quick notes.  It looks as if some question marks are hanging on the articles that constitute the gross misconduct, as it is being defined by the state assembly in this case. For instance, they raised allegations that the governor orchestrated the demolition of the state assembly and that he has been spending funds without appropriation, but the question of the assembly demolition is a criminal matter that has not been conclusively investigated by the police.  This question of spending funds without appropriation could also be open to debate here and there.  There is a contention between the governor’s camp and that of the assembly about whether a fresh 2025 budget should be submitted after the state of emergency was lifted. The governor’s camp had contended that since the National Assembly had passed the 2025 budget under emergency rule, the state assembly may not need to pass the budget all over.  Then the assembly has also insisted on the submission of the 2026 budget. That is legally within their powers, but whether such can constitute an impeachable offence in January 2026 is a question for the legal minds. 

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For instance, the 2026 budget of the Federal Government is still in the works in the National Assembly. Though most states of the federation have passed their budgets, the 1999 Constitution gives the executive six months within which it can run the government before the passage of the budget. The executive only needs to spend half the amount of the previous budget within those six months. It is after the expiration of the six months that a government shutdown is envisaged by the Constitution.  In Nigeria, we have not experienced a government shutdown as a result of a lack of budget before. The closest time was in 2008, when President Umaru Yar’ Adua avoided that dead end by acceding to the decision of the National Assembly to include constituency projects in the budget passed by the lawmakers, five months into the new year.

So, accusing a state government of failing to run the 2026 budget in January would look like overkill.  Such a state can even cite the example of the Federal Government, which ran the 2024 and 2025 budgets concurrently in 2025. Even now, the capital component of the 2025 budget has been extended by the National Assembly till March 2026. Our elders say, Ija lo de niorin di owe (it is when a quarrel breaks out that songs are made in parables). We all know that the stakeholders in Rivers State are all offspring of the same political family and that Fubara, who is today looking like an estranged political hand, was as chummy as a Siamese twin with the reigning political godfather, Barrister Nyesom Wike.  One would then want to ask, should vengeance be pursued further than death? The elders say even if we are fighting, it is not to the point of death.

I do not expect that Fubara and the assembly members will return from the six-month political exile and remain in trenches, so the declaration by the minister weeks ago that all may not be well between him and Fubara was indeed a shock.

Trying to apportion blame in this kind of situation would amount to a wink in the dark.  There are so many things under the table that the eyes cannot see on the table. But I think Fubara has a lot to do with political communication in all this brouhaha.  I do not think he can manage elected politicians by accounting procedures. He can only manage them via politics and political calculations. 

My former boss, Senator Adolphus Wabara, PhD, told me after the killing of the famous Third Term bill in the Senate in 2006 that he believed that his removal as Senate President in 2005 was an act of God and that the Almighty did not want the constitution amendment to succeed, which is why he had to go. He said that if he were still in the office at the time the Third Term agenda broke out, and had maintained his chubby relationship with then President Olusegun Obasanjo, with his knowledge of the mentality of lawmakers, the plot might have sailed through.  ‘I would just have thrown the matter open to you guys, the egg heads, and you would have devised a way out, he told me with the benefit of hindsight.

What Fubara needs is to understand the mentality of the lawmaker and flow with them accordingly.  As much as I have seen in the more than two decades of this democracy, lawmakers are not difficult to manage; the executive that keys into understanding the mentality of the parliamentarians doesn’t have issues getting bills passed or amended.

I also do not think that it is too difficult for Fubara to manage Wike. There are godfathers, and there will always be godfathers. There was an instance when Baba Lamidi Adedibu was almost unstoppable in Oyo State, but the late Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala came and managed him. Political alliances are always formed, but political debts cannot be fully paid. In several instances, it is not the payment of the debts that matters, but the acknowledgement of an individual’s area of influence.  Our man in Rivers State needs to save the country from the repeated heated arguments endlessly oozing out of the Garden City. Maybe he only needs to acknowledge some areas of influence and march on.