Your emergence declaration in Rivers a political manipulation in crisis you enabled, Atiku tells Tinubu
*Says President's role as vested partisan actor in state crisis is disgraceful *Your action is punishing Rivers people to serve political gamesmanship between the governor and Tinubu’s enablers in the federal government, Says ex-VP *As Atiku slams APC's Tinubu, says his biased "an assault on democracy and must be condemned in the strongest terms"
By KEMI KASUMU
“Anyone paying attention to the unfolding crisis knows that Bola Tinubu has been a vested partisan actor in the political turmoil engulfing Rivers. His blatant refusal — or calculated negligence — in preventing this escalation is nothing short of disgraceful,” says Atiku
In what looks like the first time institution will no longer enjoy public confidence due to what is seen as attempt by ruling class misapplication of power, the state of emergency declared by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu by which he sacked the democratically elected government of Rivers State on Tuesday March 18, 2025 may have generated serious criticisms among eminent Nigerians.
Among the resistance indication comes from the reaction of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who faulted the declaration, describing it as an assault on democracy that must be condemned in the strongest terms.
The DEFENDER reports that Tinubu, after long time of calls from stakeholders in the state to sack his Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Nyesom Wike as the antidote to the crisis and accusations that he deliberately empowered the Minister with Federal Might through judiciary manipulations among others, Tuesday night read a nationwide broadcast that centred on sacking Governor Siminalayi Fubara, his deputy and the members of the state Assembly used by Wike to figment the trouble but left Wike in power in Abuja.
Many Nigerians, who have reacted to the selective application of justice in power, are now asking Tinubu to explain the rationale behind sacking the victim while continuing to leave the persecutor in and close to power access knowing that through that way the same cause of the chaos he enabled as president will remobilise for fresh ejection that will come in six months time.
In his reaction, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who made his statement via his verified Facebook page, noted that the President Tinubu’s declaration of state of emergency in such ambiguous circumstances is a political manipulation, carried out in bad faith.
According to him, President Bola Tinubu cannot evade responsibility for the chaos his administration has he either enabled or failed to prevent it in Rivers State.
He further noted that if federal infrastructure in Rivers has been compromised, the President should bear full responsibility, and rather than punish the people of Rivers State with a state of emergency.
Atiku said, “The declaration of a state of emergency in Rivers State reeks of political manipulation and outright bad faith.
“Anyone paying attention to the unfolding crisis knows that Bola Tinubu has been a vested partisan actor in the political turmoil engulfing Rivers. His blatant refusal — or calculated negligence — in preventing this escalation is nothing short of disgraceful.
“Beyond the political scheming in Rivers, the brazen security breaches that led to the condemnable destruction of national infrastructure in the state land squarely on the President’s desk.
“Tinubu cannot evade responsibility for the chaos his administration has either enabled or failed to prevent.
“It is an unforgivable failure that under Tinubu’s watch, the Niger Delta has been thrown back into an era of violent unrest and instability — undoing the hard-won peace secured by the late President Umaru Yar’Adua. Years of progress have been recklessly erased in pursuit of selfish political calculations.
“If federal infrastructure in Rivers has been compromised, the President bears full responsibility. Punishing the people of Rivers State just to serve the political gamesmanship between the governor and Tinubu’s enablers in the federal government is nothing less than an assault on democracy and must be condemned in the strongest terms.”
