Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has strongly criticized President Bola Tinubu’s declaration of a state of emergency in Rivers State, describing the move as “political manipulation and outright bad faith.”
In a statement posted on his verified social media handles on Tuesday night, Atiku accused Tinubu of being responsible for the prolonged political and security crisis in the state. He argued that the President deliberately ignored the situation until it escalated, stating, “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.”
Atiku also held Tinubu accountable for security breaches that led to the destruction of federal infrastructure in Rivers. “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,” he said.
He further accused Tinubu of reversing years of peace in the Niger Delta region. “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,” he added.
The former vice president insisted that if federal infrastructure in Rivers had been compromised, the President bore full responsibility. He described the emergency rule as an attack on democracy, saying, “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.”
President Tinubu had earlier on Tuesday declared a state of emergency in Rivers State, suspending Governor Siminalayi Fubara, his deputy Prof. Ngozi Odu, and the State House of Assembly for an initial period of six months, citing political and security instability that had disrupted governance and undermined democratic institutions.
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