Nigerians should be praising President Bola Tinubu every day for saving Rivers State from further crises by only declaring a state of emergency and suspending Governor Siminalayi Fubara for six months, FCT Minister Nyesom Wike has said.

Mr Wike said in a media chat in Abuja on Friday that even though he wished for Mr Fubara’s outright removal, Mr Tinubu made the right decision, which included the suspension of Deputy Governor Ngozi Odu and House of Assembly members for the same duration.

“As a politician, I am not happy about the state of emergency in Rivers State,” said Mr Wike. “I wanted the outright removal of Governor Fubara. The president, by declaring a state of emergency, saved Fubara.”

He added, “However, people must tell the truth. The governor was gone. He was gone, yes. So when people say the president did this, I say they should be praising him. Every morning, they should go to the president and ask, ‘Can we wash your feet for saving us?”

The FCT minister added that if the crisis emanated from him, the suspended governor would have called him to discuss and figure out what the problem was.

Mr Wike, a former governor of Rivers, and Mr Fubara had been in a political tussle over the control of the state’s political structure for 14 months.

The unresolved tussle led to the president’s controversial emergency declaration in Rivers and his subsequent appointment of Retired Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas to oversee the state’s affairs.

Mr Tinubu, in a national broadcast on March 18, declared a state of emergency in Rivers, citing section 305(5) of the 1999 Constitution.

The president said, “It has become inevitably compelling for me to invoke the provision of section 305 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as amended, to declare a state of emergency in Rivers State with effect from today, 18th March 2025, and I so do.”