When Nyesom Wike walked out of his polling unit in Rivers State on Saturday after casting his vote in the local government elections, he wasn’t just defending the credibility of a controversial ballot.
He was sending a political signal: the countdown to the end of emergency rule in Rivers has begun, and with it, a possible reset of the state’s fractured power equation.
The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, who remains a towering figure in Rivers politics, declared with certainty that President Bola Tinubu’s emergency declaration over the state will expire on September 18. For Wike, that date isn’t just administrative—it is political. It marks the anticipated return of the state House of Assembly and the restoration of grassroots governance, both of which were suspended in the turbulence that followed Rivers’ prolonged political crisis.
But beneath the optimism lies a shrewd calculation. By positioning himself as the voice of calm and order in an election held under the shadow of a sole administrator, Wike is subtly reclaiming legitimacy in a state where his critics accuse him of engineering the very crisis that necessitated federal intervention.
The polls themselves—spread across 6,866 polling units in 319 wards—are mired in controversy. They come six months after the Supreme Court voided the 2024 local council elections, and critics argue that holding fresh elections under Ibok Ete-Ibas, Tinubu’s handpicked caretaker, undermines democratic standards. Yet Wike insists the elections are proof that Rivers is stabilizing, that “the coast is clear” for normalcy to return.
The political undertone is unmistakable: if the emergency is lifted, the state legislature—currently weakened—would be reactivated, potentially reshaping alliances ahead of 2027. Wike, who has mastered the art of keeping both allies and opponents guessing, knows that whoever controls the Assembly and grassroots councils holds the levers of Rivers politics.
For Tinubu, the end of the emergency rule will be a test of whether his intervention bought stability or merely postponed another round of turmoil. For Wike, it could be the moment he reclaims the narrative as the indispensable power broker in Rivers State.