State of Emergency: Your Silence on Wike’s Role Is Golden and Enabling” – PDP Governors Slam Tinubu Over Rivers Crisis

The Peoples Democratic Party Governors’ Forum (PDPGF) has come down hard on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, accusing him of enabling the political crisis in Rivers State through his silence on the alleged actions of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike. In a fiery statement signed by the Forum’s chairman, Senator Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed, the governors declared: *“Mr. President, your silence on the active role played by your Minister of the FCT in the Rivers impasse is golden and enabling. He has become a law unto himself because he was playing out your script. Now we know.”*

The statement, released in response to President Tinubu’s March 18 nationwide broadcast, expressed grave concern over what the governors described as the suspension of democratic rule in Rivers State. They accused the presidency of orchestrating a “premeditated attack” on Governor Siminalayi Fubara, the PDP, and opposition parties, warning that the move poses a grave threat to Nigeria’s democracy.

“This is totally unstatemanly, biased, and divisive,” the statement continued, as the governors pledged full solidarity with Governor Fubara and the people of Rivers State during what they called “a very difficult and trying moment in the state’s political history.”

Echoing the concerns of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), which condemned the suspension of elected officials in Rivers State as unconstitutional, the PDP governors vowed to challenge the interpretation of Section 305 (3) of the Constitution in court. They warned that the President’s decision, if not reversed, would worsen the country’s political instability, deepen mistrust, and harm the national economy and cohesion.

Calling on President Tinubu to retrace his steps, the Forum urged him to “listen to wise counsel,” admit to his “grievous mistakes,” and “reverse this atrocious and retrograde decision before it is too late.”