Rivers State make-or-break LG poll: Matters arising
Against the backdrop of the political alchemy playing out in Rivers State under the emergency rule imposed on the state by President Bola Tinubu on March 18 2025, the recent announcement of Saturday, August 30, 2025 as the new date for a fresh local government poll remains topical. On Monday, July 28, 2025, the chairman […]
Against the backdrop of the political alchemy playing out in Rivers State under the emergency rule imposed on the state by President Bola Tinubu on March 18 2025, the recent announcement of Saturday, August 30, 2025 as the new date for a fresh local government poll remains topical.
On Monday, July 28, 2025, the chairman of the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC), Michael Odey, had announced a new date for the conduct of the poll as Saturday, August 30, 2025, which is a postponement of the exercise from its earlier date of August 9, 2025.
The significance of the exercise draws from several factors. First is the pivotal role local government officials as the controllers of grassroots politics play in deciding the political fortunes of any state administration, and by implication, even the stakes of the respective state in national politics. This factor raises the status of the forthcoming exercise to a make-or-break dispensation for any political party or interest participating in it.
With respect to participation, it is undeniable that the political structure of Nyesom Wike, the two-time governor of the state and currently the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in the administration of President Bola Tinubu, has a head start over other interests. However, his dominance of the politics of the state did not come by wishful thinking or as a flash in the pan. Rather, the structure was built over time, right from his days as a two-time chairman of Obio Akpor Local Government, Minister of State for Education and later, Minister of Education, then a two-term governor of the state between 2015 and 2023.
However, his formal dominance of the politics of the state was consolidated during his tenures as governor by the failure of the main opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state to put its house in order and allowed the courts to bar it from fielding candidates for any political office in both 2015 and 2019 electoral seasons. Even Wike’s successor in office – the suspended governor, Siminalayi Fubara – came to office courtesy of the former. With such political antecedents, the course and outcome of the poll remains predictable as far as many pundits are concerned.
Second is the complement of circumstances leading to its conduct proper, which have spawned the widely held concern over its possibility of being safe, free and fair. Among the features of the buildup to the poll is the wide spread unease over its conduct by an appointed sole administrator – Vice Admiral Ibok Ette-Ibas (retd), whose office is widely argued to be unknown to the constitution of the country rather than the democratically elected governor. Also serving to deepen the incongruity of the situation is that it is going on in the ambience of the emergency rule dispensation, which is facing several litigations in the courts over its consistence with the constitution.
In this respect lies the need for caution and discretion by all parties in the exercise given the likely fallouts of untoward developments from the results of its execution. Easily qualifying as perhaps the most unpredictable exercise in the state, the dynamics of its conduct proper may not deviate from the history of electoral exercises in the state, and may, therefore, not conduce to a walk in the park.
Historically, Rivers State is a minority political unit of the country, for which it has been an electoral battleground over the years. Expectedly, political ascendancy for any successful political interest historically depends on support from the federal might.
This situation derives mostly from the highly cosmopolitan nature of the wider cross section of its residents. Tucked away in the Niger Delta region of the country, it has since the colonial era served as a spur for local, regional and even international business, given its endowment over time with two seaports, two airports and the role of the hub of the country’s vital petroleum sector, which is a determining factor in every aspect of its politics.
It is against this backdrop that the forthcoming poll needs to be allowed to run without unnecessary hiccups from any party or interest, no matter how highly placed or otherwise. It needs to be appreciated that when Rivers State sneezes, the rest of the country feels the impact. That is also the main reason President Bola Tinubu inveighed as justification for the imposition of the emergency rule on the state.
It also needs to be recalled that the emergency rule was imposed for an initial period of six months, and therefore, hangs like the proverbial ‘Sword of Damocles’ on the state in order to resolve any instance that may be out of order, with respect to the forthcoming poll. This implies that the emergency rule can be extended to further whatever detrimental impact it already has on the state, with respect to democratic governance.
In summary, the forthcoming local government poll therefore offers the political elite in Rivers State a metaphorical choice between maintaining order and serving in paradise or allowing chaos to prevail and ruling in hell.