TDPresident Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s handling of the Rivers State crisis reads like a masterclass in political double-speak, condemn the fire publicly, quietly fan the embers privately, and harvest the heat when it suits the larger game.
The controversy around the Rivers stadium approval is merely the latest window into a strategy designed to profit from chaos while appearing above it.
Tinubu wants to eat his cake and have it. The fracas in Rivers did not erupt in a vacuum,it was cultivated. Rivers State’s money matters in Nigerian elections.
History records how, in the run-up to Buhari’s campaign, Rotimi Amaechi disposed of the gas turbines built under Peter Odili for $308 million to oil the electoral machinery.
In 2023, Rivers’ resources again featured prominently in national calculations. Power is expensive, and Rivers has always been a deep pocket.
Governor Siminalayi Fubara’s relevance, therefore, is not measured by titles or rhetoric but by what he releases and to whom. The real question being asked in Abuja is not who governs Rivers, but who controls its purse strings. That calculus explains the strange theatre playing out: Tinubu’s camp signals recognition of Fubara as party leader through emissaries like Vice President Kashim Shettima, while simultaneously granting Nyesom Wike unchecked latitude to undermine him in the open.
Wike’s renewed belligerence is not accidental. He is animated by the need to prove that Fubara is dispensable and that he alone can “deliver” Rivers. The smoke, the bluster, the public taunts this is political shadowboxing meant to rewrite relevance. And Tinubu allows it, not because he is unaware, but because the disorder serves a purpose.
The President is managing Rivers craftily. He speaks moderately through proxies, yet tolerates excesses without reprimand. Even the most outrageous conduct attracts studied silence. The message is clear, Wike is useful. He is deployed to batter the opposition, deepen fractures within the PDP, and keep the polity tense. In the grand design for 2027, tension is not a bug,it is a feature.
Why? Because dominance requires leverage. Rivers is central to that leverage financially and strategically. Control the judiciary’s mood, keep INEC pliable, intimidate the political class, and ensure rivals are perpetually off-balance. Loyalty is rewarded, transgressions are overlooked, and neutrality is punished. Tinubu’s gaze is firmly fixed on a return, and he is clearing the path while shielding allies, no matter the offence.
The most dangerous element in this mix is the tinkering with the judiciary the last temple of concurrence in a fracturing republic. From the outset, bias was noticeable, culminating in extraordinary interventions that deepened suspicion rather than restored order. Institutions thrive on trust; politics that erode it mortgage the future.
Now that Fubara has stirred from slumber, the President appears content to knock heads together to achieve his end. It is not reconciliation; it is orchestration. Rivers is being played as a chessboard where pieces are sacrificed to secure the king’s return.
Nigeria has seen this script before. When power games masquerade as peacekeeping, the public pays the price. Rivers deserves governance, not gamesmanship. And the country deserves institutions insulated from the ambitions of any one man no matter how deftly he balances cake and appetite.
