On September 18, Governor Siminalayi Fubara is expected to return to office after months of forced suspension. For many, that date is circled with hope. But beyond the ceremony of his return lies a bitter truth: democracy in Rivers State has just survived its biggest stress test — and the cracks are visible for all to see.
In March, the President declared a state of emergency in Rivers and appointed a Sole Administrator. What followed over the next five months was nothing short of extraordinary: the suspension of elected office holders, the appointment of administrators across the 23 local government areas, the reconstitution of boards and parastatals, the hurried inauguration of a new electoral commission, and, astonishingly, the conduct of local government elections in the absence of the elected governor.
To the casual observer, this might look like governance. To those who care about democracy, it looked like the ballot box quietly went missing.
When Legality Bends to Politics
Were these moves legal? That is for the courts to decide. But legality is not the same thing as legitimacy. Several of the Sole Administrator’s actions — particularly the appointment of local government administrators and the reconstitution of the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) — were taken in defiance of restraining court orders. Civil society groups have since raised alarm that due process was abandoned in the name of political expediency.
If legality is stretched to accommodate convenience, then the ballot box becomes ornamental — something wheeled out for show, not for the people’s power.
A Dangerous Precedent
This is not just about Rivers. What happened there could become the playbook for the rest of Nigeria. If a governor’s mandate can be suspended and key institutions reshaped in his absence, then no state is safe from similar maneuvers.
We saw the same warning sign in Kogi, where political drama made the ballot box feel like an afterthought. Now Rivers has confirmed the danger: the ballot box3 can be hijacked, hidden, or hollowed out in plain sight.
Ondo APC Crisis: Democracy Sabotaged from Within
This crisis is mirrored in the internal wrangling within the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ondo State. Recently, the Asiwaju Media Team condemned attempts by some Ministers and federal appointees to mobilize factions against the state governor, reminding them that the APC Constitution recognizes the Governor as the leader of3 the party in his state.
When Ministers convene parallel meetings, create factions, or undermine the authority of the Governor, they commit the very offense the APC Constitution warns against — factionalization. According to Article 21, such actions are punishable by reprimand, suspension, or outright expulsion.
This is the same disease afflicting Rivers, only in a different form: in Rivers, a Sole Administrator hijacked institutions from above; in Ondo, party indiscipline threatens to hijack structures from within. Both scenarios endanger democracy by removing the people’s will — and with it, the ballot box itself.
Why This Matters
“When a governor’s mandate can be suspended, or when Ministers can factionalize the party against its own Governor, democracy is no longer about the people’s will — it becomes a game of political convenience. In such moments, the ballot box goes missing.”
That is not democracy. That is survival politics. And it should worry every Nigerian who believes that power must flow from the people.
The Test Ahead
Governor Fubara’s return on September 18 will not just be about one man reclaiming his office. It will be about Nigeria answering a bigger question: do we want a democracy that respects the sanctity of the ballot, or a system where elected mandates can be paused, hijacked, or factionalized at will?
If we normalize what just happened in Rivers, and what is festering in Ondo, we may one day wake up to find that the ballot box — the ultimate symbol of our democracy — has gone missing everywhere.
And when the ballot box goes missing, democracy itself goes missing.
– Prince Emani Salami writes from Kogi state.
