Headline

Cage Miyetti Allah, Punish Killer Herdsmen, Soyinka Tells Buhari in New Statement

Published

8 years ago

June 28, 2018

Eric

Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, on Wednesday accused President Muhammadu Buhari of treating killer herdsmen with kid gloves.

Soyinka said this on the heels of the killing of about 200 persons by herdsmen in two local government areas of Plateau State.

In a statement titled: “On Demand: A language of non-capitulation, non-appeasement,” Soyinka urged President Buhari to make killer herdsmen pay for their crimes to send a strong warning that his administration would not tolerate forceful land seizure anywhere in Nigeria.

The statement reads in full:

Land grab will be reversed!” This is the first governance pronouncement, the first pertinent proclamation from the presidency since the herdsmen national affliction began. Catastrophically belated, it has finally emerged from the constricted throat of a government that seemed unaware that its very corporate existence was under strangulation.
Many, in this nation, have had bitter cause to conclude that governance had indeed expired, its elected head in a trance. It is not that long ago when I demanded that this declaration of intent – the reversal of land expropriation through mass murder – be made, and that the triumphalist beneficiaries of such obscene occupation agenda be openly given a deadline to self-evacuate, or be forcefully evicted.

However, a commitment is now firmly in hand, but enforcement is all, so is the tempo of enforcement. Statements of outrage, humane sentiment, empathy, even visitations to afflicted areas are natural expectations from government, and perfectly in order. They are essential indications of concern and solidarity, even of admissions of lapses. They offer glimmerings of eventual measures of equity and restitution – of which we must never lose sight – else, community sinks into despair, or enters the interminable spiral of reprisals.

Visible pragmatic measures additionally assist in bolstering the optimism of victims, enable them to feel that they have not been abandoned. Such are the relocation of security commands to vulnerable zones, deployment of Special Forces and attack helicopters etc. etc. – yes – all these are mandatory measures, it is their absence that constitute unpardonable negligence. Long term propositions, such as establishment of ranches, restriction of cattle movements, cultivation of fast growth grasses and so on – they all indicate far-sighted planning. They deserve approbation, but they are not exclusively remedial.

Certain unconscionable events have taken place, and cannot be ignored. Entire communities have been erased from the national landscape. Thousands of family units are in mourning, survivors scarred and traumatised beyond measure. Famine looms in many areas, even in those lodged in acknowledged bread baskets of the nation. Impunity, gleeful and prideful impunity substitutes for decent self-distancing from once unthinkable crimes – let us not even speak of expressions of remorse and human empathy. The instigators, increasingly fingered as directors of human carnage are strutting around, defiant, justifying the unspeakable, daring a nation – there is no other word for it – daring governments and nation to attempt to reverse their categorisation of communities as culpable, sentenced and deserving of some of the most revolting, onslaughts of ethnic cleansing that this nation has ever undergone.
Once, when we spoke of internal colonialism, we referred merely to the military seizure of a people’s political will.

Today, that phrase has taken on a bruising physicality – seizures of a people’s land patrimony and the abrogation of their centuries old resource of material survival.
What is the ultimate destination of these new imperators? The answer is unambiguous: Land. The seizure of land, either for seasonal grazing, for the lordly passage of cattle, or for permanent settlement. The rights of passage, no matter the cost. This is what makes noteworthy this new language of objective appraisal, one that is indicative of remedial action.

When President Buhari complains – see today’s (June 27) media report, that it is unjust for the public to accuse him of being silent on the killer herdsmen, that is exactly to what they referred – the erstwhile language of complacency and accommodativeness in the face of unmerited brutalisation. Buhari had yet to speak in the language that these murdering herdsmen understand – simply, that forceful seizure of land will not be tolerated in any part of a federation under his governance. That the temporary acquisition of weapons of mass elimination by any bunch of psychopaths and anachronistic feudal mentality will not translate into subjugation of a people and a savaging of their communities; that any such gains are illusory and temporary and will be reversed. The plaint of ‘injustice’ is a misjudgment of the injustice done directly to the victims, and vicariously to the rest of us who turn to the news with dread every day, wondering what new stomach-churning accounts of the gory agenda on their humanity will replace the normal concourse of humanity.

That language, A to Z – Adamawa to Zamfara – symbolises and encompasses the Nigerian alphabet of a new language, and it is anyone’s guess whose lettering will next scorch the minds even of far distanced strangers. And, if I may confess a personal note, we are not all outsiders to this geography of collective being, and its alphabet. B – for Barkin Ladi – for instance, a serene, hospitable town was one of the favourite way stops of my research days across the nation at the very time that the nation took her early faltering steps into independence – in the early sixties. Distanced by time, Barkin Ladi nevertheless remains part of a personal, fond, formative family. Is it that same Barkin Ladi that has been put to the torch after the slaughter of her people? My people? If I visit Barkin Ladi tomorrow, will I recognise any landmark of my knowledge seeking trajectory?

Quickly, let it be stressed, this sense of violation is anything but personal. Till now, the language of governance has been constructed from the mangled alphabetism of the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) who earlier dismissed creeping genocide as neighbourhood clashes. It has been thrust into the curriculum by a Minister of Defence, Mansur Mohammed Dan-Ali – now minister of an undeclared adult educational re-orientation – who, again and again, savages already ravaged sensibilities with his distortion of a national catastrophe as a deserving consequence of a state’s legislative answer to an already manifested outrage. If ever an individual qualified to be the guinea-pig for testing the outrageous hate bill speech contemplated by our legislators, it is the unedifying pronoucements of that minister of Defence, who continues to defend the indefensible through his arrogant, provocative dismissals of an agenda of ethnic cleansing, dehumanising the victims anew, and camouflaging the failure of government by his gratuitous blame-passing.

The language of the Dan-Ali, a Brig.-Gen. of the Nigerian Armed Forces, is a language that is now being contradicted by the meaning of “Land grabbing shall be reversed”. So, which is the true heart speak of this government? That question is now catapulted to the fore even by this long avoided, and pro-active newspeak of government. The answer will be in the act, and its tempo. It will be judged also in the continued retention of such an unreformable enemy of democracy, sense and justice, one who gives joy to proven killers, who flaunts temerity to order state governments to abrogate their own rights to enact laws for the protection of their citizens!

The urgency is oppressive. It was revealed to me only last week that the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Olu Falae, whose ordeal of being kidnapped by these same marauders is still fresh in the nation’s mind, is still under siege by the same forces. Neither he, nor his workers can routinely attend to Falae’s farms, being under constant harassment by herdsmen. How could this happen, be happening, to us after the learning spell of the yet unfinished business of Boko Haram? In these matters, need I stress? – timing is all, and that timing translates in that ancient language of – ‘a stitch in time’! An aggressor who sniffs, however faintly, the permissive air of immunity, is near totally beyond recall. Only the stern language of reprimand, manifested in act, will deter him. The price of desultoriness is serial forfeiture of more than lives, hence the agony into which Nigerians have been repeatedly plunged. The leaders of Myetti Allah are self-vaunting instigators in the nation’s herder colonisation. Going by their utterances alone, their ultimatum to state governors to reverse their grazing laws or else – it is clearly not cows that need to be fenced, but Myetti to be caged. We are speaking of a recent human body count of close to two hundred, and the Myetti gang’s retort that three hundred of their cows have been rustled. Do I need to repeat here my earlier commentary on the Myetti and its allies, an assessment daily reinforced by that demonic breed. I think it is necessary, since the same language is being promoted by the minister of Defence on behalf of his government.

“Repeal this law, they demand, we shall settle for nothing less! They defy such laws, then proceed to demonise the affected state governments by twisting the order of events: the killing happens, they claim, because of what was put in place – in response to killing! Did you ever encounter a more cynical rendition of the sequence of cause-and-effect? A nation has been placed on the defensive…… I am not aware that that Myetti demagogue, the upside-down historian of first settlers and the antiquated logic of conquest, that illiterate mouther so filled with his sense of power and confidence of impunity – I am not aware that he has ever been called for questioning.”

Mr. President, do you know what I strongly believe? This recent planned massacre had a numerical target. The latest killing spree is the formal annunciation of a new law. From now on, for every missing, maimed, even legally seized cow – perhaps for trespassing and damage – one human being shall die, and commensurate land shall be forfeited. Make no mistake, that is the message!
Berom or Ondo, Tiv or Efik. Egba or Igalla – it makes no difference – this is the language, and if your government does not understand it yet, we, whose field is language, both spoken and symbolic, must decode it for you. Myetti Allah has spoken. It has inscribed this new law across the landscape in bloody lettering.

Add to this, a study in complementarity: the five young men recently sentenced to death by a High court of sorts in Zamfara – for allegedly killing a herdsman. We do not condone murder in any cause – let that be stated clearly – neither in any cause nor by anyone, and will always uphold the course of justice which, we equally insist, must remain transparent and impartial. The agitating question then is this: since this rampage began, has even one herdsman been brought up before those same courts on a charge of murder, much less sentenced to death at such lightning speed? Shall we wake up and find that they have been hanged? Yet, Zamfara has lost hundreds to the homicidal orgy of these same herdsmen. There is a skewed application of justiciable proceeding here that baffles many, this writer among them.
And now, we learn that the survivors of overwhelmed, fireballed communities, and their apprehensive neighbours, are being deprived of even their paltry defensive weapons by army units sent to zones of carnage. When I visited the governor of Benue State some weeks ago, he bitterly lamented that security agencies have even ordered his communities to surrender even the very machetes of routine use in farming. The logic of this eludes one. The JTF – the so-called Junior Task Force, made up of civilians – has been working hand in hand with the Nigerian army in the liberation of communities overrun by Boko Haram, complementing overstretched military capabilities. Their operations have gone beyond even self-defence and include aggressive pursuit of their aggressors. Like the army, they have bravely taken losses. So, why are these victims of cattle overlords not encouraged, even assisted to defend themselves? Community policing is a basic right of society and, where needed with whatever weaponry is available to them‘ The community knows itself, the members know one another, and all know their terrain. Could the military save Barkin Ladi? More pertinently, can the military protect every village in the fast-expanding territory of cattlemen terror? When can Olu Falae resume the simple, ruminant existence of a former civil servant who has opted for an imagined conflict-free existence?

The Danjuma thesis – defend yourselves! – is neither new nor strange, it is simply a restatement of the logicality of human response in the face of aggression, and one is grateful for the authoritativeness of military experience that is behind it, and a trained on-the-spot capability for assessment from within. Yes, the land-grab must be reversed, but the restored will still require to be defended, and aggressors also served a lasting lesson both from the manifested responsibility of governance, and the resistant will of the people.
Accounting for crimes is also part of that responsibility, and such criminality must not be seen to be rewarded through idealistic solutions that paper over crimes against humanity. For that is the present actuality. Crimes against our humanity have been committed, and restitution must be made. Nothing less will restore confidence in a government, and reassure the people of its integrity, its commitment to equity in internal relationships and the rightful custodianship of ancient resources.

Headline

Who’s Afraid of New Electoral Act?

Published

1 day ago

February 8, 2026

Eric

By Eric Elezuo

The furore generated with the passing of the Electoral Bill 2026 by the Nigerian Senate, is yet to die down as various groups, sections and institutions, have continued to lend their voices in condemnation of the tactical removal of the proposed real-time electronic transmission of results.

The Civil Society Organisations and Action Aid have declared a protest to kickoff on Monday, February 9, 2026, titled Occupy NASS Protest, until the Senate find reason to listen to Nigerians, and do what is right, and that aligned with the aspirations of Nigerians, according Samson Itodo, the Executive Director of YIAGA Africa.

In the same vein, the African Democratic Congress has pledged to begin a protest in Abuja on Monday over the removal of real-time clause in the new electoral bill.

The Senate, on Wednesday, passed the Electoral Bill 2026 following hours of debate, but ended up rejecting a proposal to mandate real-time electronic transmission of election results while however, approving significant reforms to election timelines, penalties for electoral offences and voting technology.

The Boss learnt that at the centre of the controversy was Section 60, which governs the transmission of polling unit results, where the Senators voted down a recommendation by the Senate Committee on Electoral Matters that would have compelled presiding officers to upload results to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal in real time. The rejection has drawn the irk of majority of Nigerians, who have have wondered if anyone is actually afraid of the new electoral law? If yes, who? And what could be the reason behind such fears as the need to regulate a hitchfree and smooth and fair electoral process have remained the goal and aspirations of politically savvy Nigerian.

But the lawmakers, contrary to the yearnings of most Nigerians, have retained the approach in the 2022 Electoral Act, which allows electronic transmission after votes are counted and publicly announced at the polling unit. In other words, giving approval to transfer of results instead of transmit in real-time of results.

In their defence however, Senators opposing the real-time upload argued that inconsistent network coverage and logistical challenges could trigger legal disputes and undermine electoral credibility.

The rejected proposal was contained in the new Clause 60(5) of the draft bill, which aimed to mandate presiding officers to electronically transmit polling unit results in real time after completing and signing Form EC8A.

The clause was designed to strengthen transparency and reduce electoral malpractice through technology-driven result management.

The motion to reject the electronic transmission clause was swiftly seconded by the Deputy President of the Senate, Barau Jibrin.

Similarly, the Senate also rejected a proposed amendment under Clause 47 that would have allowed voters to present electronically-generated voter identification, including a downloadable voter card with a unique Quick Response (QR) code, as a valid means of accreditation.

In his defensive remarks, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Adeyemi Adaramodu, described the debate as a process subjected to an invisible world of semantics.

“Electronic transmission remains part of the law,” he said, “and results will continue to be available to the public both electronically and through physical forms, ensuring verifiable records for disputes,” Adaramodu said.

In his own defence, President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, though admitted that the Senate deliberately deleted the provision for “real-time” transmission of election results from the Electoral Bill, 2026, noted however, that the Senate took the decision because it believed that “technology must save and not endanger democracy.”

Speaking at the launch of a book, “The Burden of Legislators in Nigeria”, authored by Senator Effiong Bob, in Abuja, Akpabio likened the issues raised in the book to the challenges faced by lawmakers in the course of their duties, including the controversy and alleged “abuses” directed at the Senate following the passage of the electoral bill.

The Senate President argued that the entire country could be thrown into chaos if, for instance, network or power failure affected the uploading of results.

He insisted that Form EC8A and other official election records should remain the most reliable means of declaring results.

“All we said was to remove the word ‘real-time’ to allow INEC decide the mode of transmission. If you make it mandatory and there is a system failure, there will be a serious problem,” Akpabio told the gathering, further confirming that the bill, as passed, excluded real-time electronic transmission of results.

Continuing, he said, “Real-time means that if there are nine states where there is no network, does it mean elections will not take place there?

“Or in any part of the country where there is a grid breakdown, does it mean there will be no election?”

The Senate President sounded a note of warning to Nigerians amid outrage, saying the legislature would not be “intimidated” into passing a faulty law simply to please opposition political parties, civil society groups and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

He criticised NGOs for insisting that because they organised retreats for lawmakers, where ideas were exchanged on the electoral bill, the Senate must adopt their positions, even if such positions did not align with the interests of all segments of the country.

“Why are people setting up panels on television stations and abusing senators? I leave them to God.

“We will not be intimidated but will do what is right for Nigeria, not what one NGO says. A retreat is not law-making.

“Why do you think that the paper you agreed to in Lagos must be what we must approve?” he asked.

Akpabio frowned at the public attacks on the Senate, saying they were uncalled for, and stressing that any provision rejected by the Senate could be reinstated by the Conference Committee of the Senate and the House of Representatives. He said there was therefore no need to hastily criticise senators.

“We have not even completed it until we look at the votes and proceedings. When we bring out the votes and proceedings, any senator has the right to rise and amend it.

“We can amend anything before we approve the votes and proceedings. Why abuse the Senate when what we have is incomplete?

“I can’t talk until they tell me to drop the gavel. In this case, we are yet to complete the process,” he said.

Besides Akpabio’s defences, many groups and individuals have risen stoutly against the removal of the real-time electronic transmission clause, describing the act as irresponsible and detrimental to the feeling of Nigerians.

In his reaction, the National Chairman of the main opposition party, African Democratic Congress (ADC) Senator David Mark, who himself, was a Senate President, and was also present at the book launch, cautioned Akpabio against speaking for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

“What the ADC is saying is: pass the law and let INEC decide whether it can implement real-time electronic transmission or not. Don’t speak for INEC.

“The position of the ADC is clear: pass the bill and let INEC decide what it will do with it,” Mark harped.

Reacting also, a former governor of Anambra State and presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 presidential election, Mr. Peter Obi, delivered knocks to the Senate for the rejection, noting that the Senate decision to stick to the 2022 Electoral Act, which concedes the discretion to apply electronic transmission of results to the Independent National Electoral Commission ( INEC), is an assault on democracy.

In a lengthy post in X titled, “We Continue to Confirm our ‘Now Disgraced Status’ as a Nation?” the now ADC chieftain expressed concern that while other nations have embraced the practise of electronic transmission of results, “the supposed giant of Africa, shamelessly lags behind, dragging the continent backwards.”

He wrote: “Let us all pause and pray for the souls of over 150 innocent lives lost in Kwara yesterday. This tragedy is precisely why I delayed commenting on the outrageous and shameful news surrounding our electoral system.

“The Senate’s blatant rejection of mandatory electronic transmission of election results is an unforgivable act of electoral manipulation ahead of 2027.

“This failure to pass a clear safeguard is nothing short of a deliberate assault on Nigeria’s democracy. By rejecting these essential transparency measures, they are eroding the very foundation of credible elections. “One must ask: Does the government exist to ensure order and justice, or to institutionalise chaos? Is its purpose to serve the people, or to fulfil the sinister ambitions of a select few?

“The turmoil, disputes, and manipulations that plagued past elections, especially the 2023 general election, stemmed directly from the refusal to fully implement electronic transmission.

“Nigerians were fed excuses of a fabricated “glitch” that never existed. While numerous African nations adopt electronic transmission to bolster democracy, Nigeria, the supposed giant of Africa, shamelessly lags behind, dragging the continent backwards.

“We are wasting time hosting conferences and drafting papers on Nigeria’s problems while we, the leaders and elite, are the real issue. Our deliberate resistance to reform is pulling the country backwards, dragging us toward a primitive state of governance.

“By rejecting mandatory electronic transmission—a critical safeguard for electoral integrity—we are entrenching disorder aimed at perpetuating confusion according to the whims of a small clique. Have we not reached a point where we must think seriously about the future of our country and our children? Should leadership not focus on building a credible, orderly, and livable nation for the next generation, rather than one permanently ensnared in chaos?

“When the former Prime Minister of the UK, aware of our history, labelled us “fantastically corrupt,” we reacted defensively. When President Donald Trump declared us a “now disgraced nation,” we were incensed. Yet, with every act of resistance against transparency and reform, we continue to affirm their claims. Those responsible will later point fingers at others for harming the country while they quietly suffocate its potential.

“Let there be no illusion, the criminality witnessed in 2023 will not be tolerated in 2027. Nigerians everywhere must start getting ready to rise up, resist, and reject the backward trajectory, legitimately and decisively reclaim our country from the clutches of deliberate malevolence.

“The International community must take heed of this groundwork for continued future electoral manipulation, endangering our democracy and development.”

Another respondent, Akin Osuntokun, who was the Labour Party campaign DG in 2023, noted that the removal is an affront to democracy.

“It (Rejection of e-transmission of election results) does not portend good omen, it does not portend good for the growth of democracy in Nigeria.

“The growth of democracy is rooted in accountability and the integrity of elections.

“So anything that makes elections less accountable makes the election less credible. Automatically, it is a drag and an obstruction of the growth of democracy in Nigeria.

“It does not serve the purpose of democratic consolidation, so far as the elections that are conducted on that basis will not meet the bar or threshold of credible election,” Osuntokun said while fielding questions from NAN.

Also, opposition senators have stepped out as a group, insisting that the Senate passed the Act with provision of real-time in it, stressing that anything other than that, is not a document from the Senate.

In the midst of the public outrage, Akpabio has insisted that senate did not remove or reject electronic transmission, clarifying that it cannot guarantee the transmission of results in real time hence the omission of the status of ‘real-time’.

While presiding over the debate session, Akpabio also dismissed claims that electronic transmission had been removed, emphasising that “Retaining that provision means electronic transmission remains part of our law.”

WHAT THE SENATORS CONSIDERED APPROPRIATE FOR THE ELECTORAL BILL

But beyond the brouhaha of real-time electronic transmission, other major amendments to Nigeria’s electoral calendar were approved by the Senate.

The election notice period was reduced from 360 days to 180 days, the deadline for submission of party candidate lists was shortened from 120 to 90 days, and the nomination period was cut from 180 to 90 days.

To deter electoral malpractice, the fine for unlawful possession of voters’ cards was increased from N500,000 to N5 million, though the Senate rejected a proposal for a 10-year ban on vote-buyers, opting for stiffer financial penalties instead. The smart card reader was officially removed from the electoral framework and replaced with the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS).

Under the retained provisions, presiding officers are required to count votes at the polling unit, record results on prescribed forms, announce them publicly and transmit them electronically to the appropriate collation centre.

The e-transmission of results, if approved, would have required INEC presiding officers to upload results from each polling unit to the IReV portal in real time, immediately after completing Form EC&A, which must be signed and stamped by the presiding officer and countersigned by party agents.
Instead, the senators chose to retain the present Electoral Act provision, which mandates that “the presiding officer shall transfer the results, including the total number of accredited voters and the results of the ballot, in a manner as prescribed by the Commission.”

The Senate further upheld the provision mandating the use of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) or any other technological device prescribed by INEC for voter verification and authentication, rather than allowing alternative digital identification methods as proposed in the new bill.

With these decisions, the Senate reaffirmed the use of PVC and BVAS-based accreditation while rejecting efforts to expand digital voter identification and make electronic transmission of results compulsory.

Meanwhile, while Nigerians are planning to occupy NASS beginning from Monday, the Senate has called an emergency plenary for which the agenda is hitherto unknown, but related to votes and proceedings. It is interesting time in the Nigerian political circle now.

The bone of contention has remained ‘real-time’, and Nigerians continue to ask, ‘who is afraid of new electoral act’?

Headline

Senate Passes Electoral Bill 2026, Rejects Real-time Electronic Transmission of Results

Published

5 days ago

February 5, 2026

Eric

The Senate, yesterday, passed the Electoral Bill 2026 following hours of robust debate. But it rejected a proposal to mandate real-time electronic transmission of election results while approving significant reforms to election timelines, penalties for electoral offences and voting technology.

At the centre of the controversy was Section 60, which governs the transmission of polling unit results. Senators voted down a recommendation by the Senate Committee on Electoral Matters that would have compelled presiding officers to upload results to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal in real time.

Instead, lawmakers retained the approach in the 2022 Electoral Act, which allows electronic transmission after votes are counted and publicly announced at the polling unit.

Relatedly, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which concluded work on the timetable and schedule of activities for the 2027 general election, is unable to release it due to ongoing amendments to the Electoral Act by the National Assembly.

It also identified the inclusion of deceased persons on the voters’ register, prompting plans for a nationwide verification exercise.

On its part, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) raised the alarm over the National Assembly’s delay in passing the Electoral Act amendments, warning that the situation could expose political parties to technical and legal pitfalls ahead of the 2027 general elections.

Under the retained provisions, presiding officers are required to: count votes at the polling unit, record results on prescribed forms, announce them publicly and transmit them electronically to the appropriate collation centre.

Copies must also be provided to polling agents and security personnel where available. Violators face fines of up to N500,000 or a minimum of six months’ imprisonment.

Senators opposing the real-time upload argued that inconsistent network coverage and logistical challenges could trigger legal disputes and undermine electoral credibility.

Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Adeyemi Adaramodu, described the debate as largely semantic.

Beyond the transmission debate, the Senate approved far-reaching amendments to Nigeria’s electoral calendar. The election notice period was reduced from 360 days to 180 days, the deadline for submission of party candidate lists was shortened from 120 to 90 days, and the nomination period was cut from 180 to 90 days.

INEC Chairman, Prof Joash Amupitan, noted the delay yesterday in Abuja at INEC’s first quarterly consultative meeting with Civil Society Organisations (CSOs).

The clause was designed to strengthen transparency and reduce electoral malpractice through technology-driven result management.

The motion to reject the electronic transmission clause was swiftly seconded by the Deputy President of the Senate, Barau Jibrin.

The Guardian

Headline

Wike Remains Undisputed Rivers APC, PDP Leader, Tinubu Rules

Published

7 days ago

February 3, 2026

Eric

President Bola Tinubu has, again, intervened to halt the escalating feud between Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, and his predecessor and estranged godfather, Nyesom Wike.

The peace deal came after months of failed settlements that had pushed the state to the brink of governorship impeachment, legislative paralysis, and prolonged instability.

The president had previously intervened in the rift between Fubara and Wike in December 2023, when he brokered a fragile peace, which broke down soon after, leading the declaration of a six-month emergency rule in the state on March 18, 2025 by Tinubu and suspension of the governor.

However, in the fresh push to defuse one of the country’s most combustible political disagreements in recent times, Tinubu ordered an immediate suspension of any impeachment moves against Fubara, but with very strict conditions.

Multiple highly placed sources familiar with the issue told THISDAY that Tinubu, who acted just before departing for an official trip to Türkiye on January 26, laid down the political terms aimed at restoring peace between the two key political actors in Rivers State, a state seen as critical to the president’s re-election in 2027.

Tinubu’s intervention came with a blunt message to Fubara: Wike remains the undisputed political leader of the party, whether APC or Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers State, and he must be respected in that regard.

THISDAY was told that the president, visibly displeased by the depth of the rift, despite his efforts in the past, warned that continued hostilities would undermine governance in the state and lead to instability, a situation Tinubu said he was not ready to condone.

Tinubu was said to have clearly told Wike to back off any impeachment plots against Fubara and allow governance in the state.

Fubara and his predecessor, Wike, have had a cat and mouse relationship just within months of the governor’s swearing into office in May 2023. What is now out in the open is that Wike, who personally engineered Fubara’semergence as his successor, has sought to control the levers of power from Abuja, while the governor has resisted what many see as the FCT minister’s chokehold on him.

The relationship began to fracture within months of Fubara’s inauguration, as the governor quietly sought to assert his independence, with political actors in the state immediately taking sides. Notably, in the ongoing fight, almost all the state lawmakers align with Wike.

Subsequently, attempts to impeach Fubara emerged from the pro-Wike group in the House of Assembly. Although the governor has tried to wriggle out of the situation several times, the shadows of impeachment continue to haunt him every time there is a disagreement with the minister.

Several efforts have been made to resolve the crisis, all of which failed to produce lasting peace. The failure of one of the peace meetings eventually led to the declaration of a state of emergency in the oil-rich state, which lasted six months.

While Wike’s camp continues to accuse Fubara of betrayal and political ingratitude, the governor’s allies argue that Rivers State cannot be run from outside the state by a former governor now serving as the FCT minister.

Still on the latest attempt to seek an end to the prolonged imbroglio, one insider recounted the president’s thinking, drawing a parallel with Lagos State, where Sanwo-Olu is the leader of the party.

Tinubu was said to have stated, “Is Babajide Sanwo-Olu my leader in Lagos, or was Babatunde Fashola my leader when he was governor?”, according to a source.

The president was equally said to have stated that Fubara should respect elders, saying Wike is an elder statesman in Rivers politics and should be regarded as such. Tinubu, one of the sources added, made it clear that political seniority could not be wished away because of personal disagreements.

As part of the peace deal, the president directed Wike and his camp to immediately halt all impeachment-related actions against Fubara, citing his overriding concern about stability in Rivers State.

In return, Fubara was instructed to make significant concessions. Chief among them was the formal recognition of Wike as the “political leader” in Rivers State, with final authority on party matters.

Sources said Tinubu stressed that all internal party disputes in the state must ultimately defer to Wike.

However, the complexity of Wike’s case is that he is not a card-carrying member of APC in Rivers State. Officially, he remains a member of the struggling opposition PDP, although he is a top minister under the ruling APC government – A position he has used to weaken his party, the PDP.

Besides, the understanding covered the upcoming state House of Assembly bye-elections in Rivers State. Tinubu directed that candidates loyal to Wike should be recognised by the APC leadership for the two vacant assembly seats. “It was explicitly stated that Wike has two candidates for the by-elections and that those candidates are to be recognised by the APC party structure,” one source said.

Already, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has fixed February 21, 2026 for the contentious by-elections into Ahoada East II and Khana II State Constituencies of the state.

THISDAY learnt that while the Ahoada-East II seat became vacant following the resignation of its former occupant, Edison Ehie, who was appointed Chief of Staff (CoS) to Governor Fubara, the Khana II seat was vacant since the death of its lawmaker, Dinebari Loolo, in September 2023.

Notably, the sensitive issue of Fubara’s second term ambition also came up for deliberation, the source said, but was deliberately side-lined, with the president alleged to have said such discussions were too early for now. One source said Tinubu described any talk about the 2027 governorship in the state as still premature.

ThisDay/Arise News