Updates President on peace efforts in Rivers State
May return to office before end of six-month suspension.
There are strong indications that if all goes well, suspended Governor of Rivers State, Siminalayi Fubara, may be heading back to the Rivers State Government House before the expiration of his six-month suspension. This follows a series of visits to the seat of power, ostensibly to calm frayed nerves, assure President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of his loyalty, and pacify his estranged political God father, Nyesom Wike.
Fubara yesterday paid another visit to President Tinubu in Lagos, with knowledgeable insiders revealing that he planned to use the meeting to again pledge loyalty to the president and update him about their previous discussions on his efforts to restore peace in troubled Rivers State.
Fubara had previously met President Tinubu in London last April, and subsequently met his estranged godfather, Federal Capital Territory Minister, Nyesom Wike, early last month to smooth out the rough edges of their relationship.
He was notably accompanied by two serving governors of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, Dapo Abiodun of Ogun and Francis Nwifuru of Ebonyi, as well as former Ogun State governor, Olusegun Osoba, another veteran of the ruling party. Fubara was said to have used the meeting to beg Wike for forgiveness and for help return to his seat.
Special Adviser on Media and Information Strategy to the President, Bayo Onanuga, confirmed yesterday’s visit in a post on his verified Facebook page.
He wrote: “Governor Sim Fubara of Rivers, now on suspension from office, visited President Bola Tinubu in Lagos yesterday.”
The latest visit to President Tinubu is part of ongoing efforts to address the political impasse in Rivers State, which has drawn national attention and legal challenge from opposition parties contesting the constitutionality of his suspension.
Fubara was suspended on March 18, 2025, by President Tinubu, who declared a state of emergency in Rivers State and appointed a Sole Administrator to oversee the state’s affairs for six months.
The suspension followed the deepening political crisis in the state between him and his powerful predecessor, Wike.
A day before the visit to Tinubu, Wike told newsmen in Abuja that he has no issues with Governor Fubara, and that he was not necessarily in support of the State of Emergency in Rivers State, because the suspension saved Fubara from what observers perceived as certain impeachment.
Wike repeated that Fubara allowed himself to be used as a tool by his own enemies, especially those who opposed his emergence as governor, to short-circuit himself, becoming “the tool for those who couldn’t fight me to fight me.”
“I don’t have any crisis with him (Fubara). I’m not the President who declared a State of Emergency; if Mr President had called me, I wouldn’t have agreed to the State of Emergency.
“He knows when to lift, he has everything on his table, I don’t know. I have never supported it. But what I said was that the declaration of state of emergency was to save the governor because he was almost impeached,” Wike said.