PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria — Rivers State Governor Siminalayi Fubara has dissolved the State Executive Council, directing all commissioners and special advisers to hand over immediately to permanent secretaries or the most senior officers in their ministries. The directive was issued in an official statement signed by the governor’s Chief Press Secretary, Onwuka Nzeshi, who said the governor thanked outgoing cabinet members for their service and wished them well.
The move comes roughly 48 hours after FCT Minister Nyesom Wike confirmed renewed reconciliation efforts over Rivers’ protracted political feud, saying President Bola Tinubu had hosted key actors—including Fubara and Wike—at the Presidential Villa in Abuja. Political observers are reading the dissolution as a high-stakes administrative and political reset in a state where executive-legislative tensions have repeatedly disrupted governance and budget processes.
Rivers remains a nationally strategic flashpoint because of its oil infrastructure and revenue importance. The same rivalry between the governor and lawmakers aligned with Wike previously escalated into a constitutional crisis severe enough to trigger a six-month emergency period in 2025 before normal constitutional order was restored. What happens next depends on how quickly Fubara submits a new cabinet list and whether the state assembly cooperates on confirmations. If that process proceeds smoothly, the shake-up could consolidate the latest truce. If it stalls, it may reopen the same fault lines that destabilized the state over the past year.
In practical governance terms, ministries are now in caretaker mode under permanent secretaries pending new political appointees. The immediate test will be continuity: project approvals, payment cycles, and budget execution over the next few weeks while the new cabinet architecture is negotiated.
