STATEMENT BY HIS EXCELLENCY, BOLA AHMED TINUBU, PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA, ON THE CESSATION OF THE STATE OF EMERGENCY IN RIVERS STATE

My Fellow countrymen and, in particular, the good people of Rivers State.

I am happy to address you today on the state of emergency declaration in Rivers State.

You will recall that on 18th March, 2025, I proclaimed a state of emergency in the state.

In my proclamation address, I highlighted the reasons for the declaration.

The summary of it for context is that there was a total paralysis of governance in Rivers State, which had led to the Governor of Rivers State and the House of Assembly being unable to work together.

Critical economic assets of the State, including oil pipelines, were being vandalised.

The State House of Assembly was crisis-ridden, such that members of the House were divided into two groups.

Four members worked with the Governor, while 27 members opposed the Governor. The latter group supported the Speaker.

As a result, the Governor could not present any Appropriation Bill to the House, to enable him to access funds to run Rivers State’s affairs.

That serious constitutional impasse brought governance in the State to a standstill.

Even the Supreme Court, in one of its judgments in a series of cases filed by the Executive and the Legislative arms of Rivers State against each other, held that there was no government in Rivers State.

My intervention and that of other well-meaning Nigerians to resolve the conflict proved abortive as both sides stuck rigidly to their positions to the detriment of peace and development of the State.

It therefore became painfully inevitable that to arrest the drift towards anarchy in Rivers State, I was obligated to invoke the powers conferred on me by Section 305 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, to proclaim the state of emergency.

The Offices of the Governor, Deputy Governor, and elected members of the State House of Assembly were suspended for six months in the first instance.

The six months expire today, September 17th, 2025.

I thank the National Assembly, which, after critically evaluating the justification for the proclamation, took steps immediately, as required by the Constitution, to approve the declaration in the interest of peace and order in Rivers State.

I also thank our traditional rulers and the good people of Rivers State for their support from the date of the declaration of the state of emergency until now.

I am not unaware that there were a few voices of dissent against the proclamation, which led to their instituting over 40 cases in the courts in Abuja, Port Harcourt, and Yenagoa, to invalidate the declaration.

That is the way it should be in a democratic setting.

Some cases are still pending in the courts as of today. But what needs to be said is that the power to declare a state of emergency is an inbuilt constitutional tool to address situations of actual or threatened breakdown of public order and public safety, which require extraordinary measures to return the State to peace, order and security.

Considered objectively, we had reached that situation of total breakdown of public order and public safety in Rivers State, as shown in the judgment of the Supreme Court on the disputes between the Executive and the Legislative arm of Rivers State.

It would have been a colossal failure on my part as President not to have made that proclamation.

As a stakeholder in democratic governance, I believe that the need for a harmonious existence and relationship between the executive and the legislature is key to a successful government, whether at the state or national level.

The people who voted us into power expect to reap the fruits of democracy.

However, that expectation will remain unrealizable in an atmosphere of violence, anarchy, and insecurity borne by misguided political activism and Machiavellian manipulations among the stakeholders.

I am happy today that, from the intelligence available to me, there is a groundswell of a new spirit of understanding, a robust readiness, and potent enthusiasm on the part of all the stakeholders in Rivers State for an immediate return to democratic governance.

This is undoubtedly a welcome development for me and a remarkable achievement for us.

I therefore do not see why the state of emergency should exist a day longer than the six months I had pronounced at the beginning of it.

It therefore gives me great pleasure to declare that the emergency in Rivers State of Nigeria shall end with effect from midnight today.

The Governor, His Excellency Siminalayi Fubara, the deputy governor, Her Excellency Ngozi Nma Odu, and members of the Rivers State House of Assembly and the speaker, Martins Amaewhule, will resume work in their offices from 18 September 2025.

I take this opportunity to remind the Governors and the Houses of Assembly of all the States of our country to continue to appreciate that it is only in an atmosphere of peace, order, and good government that we can deliver the dividends of democracy to our people.

I implore all of you to let this realisation drive your actions at all times.

I thank you all.

Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR
President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces
Federal Republic of Nigeria
State House, Abuja
September 17, 2025

The Tinubu Media Support Group (TMSG) has said that President Bola Tinubu has a major responsibility to forestall further chaos and anarchy in Rivers State by proclaiming a state of emergency.

The group argued that intelligence at the President’s exclusive disposal was sufficient justification for his decision to declare a state of emergency and also suspend democratic institutions there for six months.

This, according to TMSG, is a fallout of the reluctance of the two parties in the political crisis to work together despite a presidential intervention and a recent Supreme Court ruling.

In a statement signed by its Chairman Emeka Nwankpa and Secretary Dapo Okubanjo, TMSG argued that the President was left with no choice but to constitutionally intervene and restore security, stability and order in the state.

It said: “Our position on President Bola Tinubu’s decision to impose a state of emergency and suspend Governor Siminalayi Fubara, his deputy and members of the House of Assembly is simple. The president acted proactively to defuse an already charged situation.

“This follows the hard-line positions and reluctance of both parties in the political crisis in Rivers state to heed the voice of reason and act to return the state to peaceful governance in the aftermath of the recent Supreme Court ruling.

“We note that before then, President Tinubu had in December 2023 intervened by brokering a peace deal between Governor Fubara and the state legislators.

“The deal which was tabled at a meeting in Abuja attended by key political stakeholders, was to have culminated in the governor recognising and presenting the 2024 budget to the Martin Amaewhule-led assembly as well as reinstate the legislators’ remunerations and benefits while the Assembly members were to stop impeachment proceedings.

“Both sides were also to drop all pending court matters on the crisis. But to the surprise of many Nigerians, the parties stuck to their hard-line positions and failed to implement critical aspects of the peace deal.

“We were therefore surprised to see a claim by the former Rivers state Commissioner of Information that the governor implemented the President’s deal.

“So we wonder which one of the terms was implemented because the lawmakers have not had their benefits reinstated, and neither was the 2024 budget sent to them for approval.

TMSG said that even when the Supreme Court ruled on the matter, there was still a reluctance from both parties to work in harmony until the state legislators began impeachment proceedings which could have worsened the situation.

It added that the day after the impeachment notice was served, an explosion rocked the Trans-Niger Pipeline, one of Nigeria’s biggest oil pipelines, which feeds the crude export terminal at Bonny.

It said a similar incident was also recorded a few hours later in the evening at a manifold connected to a federal pipeline deep inside the forest.

“So for us, an extraordinary measure was necessary to restore governance and prevent further breakdown of law and order in Rivers State, as the President noted in his 12-minute national broadcast.

“From all indications, the President watched and waited patiently for 15 months as both parties engaged in unnecessary filibustering and reneging until the truce brokered by the president was broken.”

TMSG further argued that there was no basis for comparing the President’s action to that of former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2013 at the height of the war against insurgency in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states.

“We acknowledge that President Jonathan indeed declared a State of Emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa but left the governors in place. But let Nigerians not forget that it was a war situation, which is different from what we have in Rivers State.

“President Tinubu did not declare emergency rule in Rivers strictly because of security issues. He made it clear that
his decision was necessary to restore peace, order, and governance in a state that had been embroiled in political turmoil for several months on end.

“So we believe that President Tinubu deserves credit for not only declaring a state of emergency but for also suspending the two parties for six months.

“We hope that it will give both parties enough time to ruminate and evaluate their actions since December 2023 and accept mediatory efforts they had shunned previously,” it added.(NAN)
Edited by Ismail Abdulaziz