Rivers poll that redefines its politics henceforth

Whether it holds or not, the local government poll scheduled for Rivers State today, Saturday, August 30, 2025, will remain a landmark dispensation that redefines the state’s politics for now and the foreseeable future. If nothing else, the buildup to it, the deluge of controversies swirling around it, especially the issue of legitimacy and the […]

Whether it holds or not, the local government poll scheduled for Rivers State today, Saturday, August 30, 2025, will remain a landmark dispensation that redefines the state’s politics for now and the foreseeable future. If nothing else, the buildup to it, the deluge of controversies swirling around it, especially the issue of legitimacy and the impact it will generate, both within and outside the state, justify it as one of the most twisted political developments in the history of the country.

While its promoters envisage it as a panacea to the months-long political crisis in the state, its opponents classify it as an unmitigated disaster. This leaves its future impact more or less in the terrain of conjecture.

Among the areas of twists in today’s exercise are the following:

 

Legitimacy

The legitimacy of the exercise has been its most contentious feature. In one vein, the opponents of the poll contest its legitimacy, hanging their cause on the extant provisions of the constitution, which assigns the responsibility for conducting elections notionally to a democratically elected governor – Siminalayi Fubara. And in that course, they have been engaged in several initiatives to scuttle the exercise through de-marketing it as illegitimate on sundry fora, as well as recourse to the courts. However, their efforts seem not to have significantly affected the process. For instance, just a couple of days ago, a Port Harcourt High Court threw out one of such cases against the conduct of the poll. This has further armed the resolve of its proponents.

On the other hand is the stand of the proponents and who align with the sole administrator, Nigeria’s former Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ibok Ette-Ibas, in his capacity to administer the state on the premise of the six-month emergency rule imposed on the state by President Bola Tinubu on March 18 2025.

According to the proponents, with the emergency rule in place, what prevails in law may not be the routine compliance with all the provisions of the constitution, but a response to exigent circumstances, which may not have been anticipated by the constitution. It is like the situation where the policeman who protects the citizens’ lives and property also resorts to shooting a felon where circumstances permit, who may be a fellow citizen with the same gun with which the former protects the citizenry, including the felon.

 

Participation

With respect to participation, the exercise may go on with a high level of voter apathy over misgivings about its legitimacy. The level of apathy will depend on the intensity or otherwise of the public enlightenment by the RSIEC itself. Meanwhile, the much the RSIEC has been seen to have done is more about establishing its legitimacy than mobilising the electorate to come out and vote. Seen in context, the issue of its legitimacy was a matter of public concern, especially with respect to its hurried assemblage, with a non-indigene – Dr Michael Odey as its chairman. However, with the National Assembly acting in the light of constitutional powers in resolving the process, a lot of dust, which was raised over the matter, soon died down.

However, the RSIEC seems to have suffered a burn-out of its energies and enterprise, and left the task of mobilising the electorate, to the advocates of the exercise. The foregoing and the unmistakably partisan antecedents of the exercise, render the results of the polls rather predictable, even ahead of the poll.

 

Conduct of the poll

There is a likelihood that the exercise may not depart from the traditional course of elections that feature instances of violence, vote manipulation and other vices. The spate of spirited engagements with stakeholders and the general public by the police and other security agencies testifies to their anticipation and concern that the poll may not be a tea party. If during the course of routine elections there are instances of untoward developments, the mere fact that the present exercise is coming in the course of bitterly fought political contests for power makes it more disposed to attract suspicion by the authorities and security personnel.

 

Impact on the politics of the state

Without doubt, the impact of the poll on Rivers State will be significant for both the present and immediate future. Whereas the unmistakable play-out of the antecedents of the poll tend to reflect the realignment and consolidation of political structures, the consequences of  hanging the political fortunes of the state on the proclivities of individuals no matter how saintly such may be considered, need to be factored into the Rivers State scenario.

Contemporary political tendencies in Rivers State, and which will continue to impact the immediate future is the spate of intense, often violent, political rivalry between various political interests and parties with two major parties, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the forefront. The root causes remain the play-out of ethnic sentiments over who gets what in the sharing of the available political offices and favours under the auspices of zoning.

However, that the local government poll in Rivers State is purely for power grab and has little or nothing to offer in respect of the core issues of the day These  include inclusion of the people in the politics of the day,  the runaway unemployment situation, the infrastructural dearth and the deepening silence on the economic exclusion of a wide swathe of the population there. It, therefore, qualifies as yet another avoidable distraction from the real development of the state.