In a jaw‑dropping revelation this week, the Senate’s Ad‑Hoc Committee on Emergency Governance in Rivers State has exposed that a staggering 85 per cent of the ₦1.48 trillion 2025 budget submitted by Sole Administrator Vice Admiral Ibok‑Ete Ibas (retd.) was in fact drafted under the suspended Governor Siminalayi Fubara’s watch.
What purports to be fresh fiscal direction for Rivers State is, in essence, a recycled blueprint from an administration currently under a rare emergency rule—a development that raises serious questions about the very rationale for Mr Ibas’s appointment.
Ghostwriting Governance?
When President Bola Tinubu invoked emergency powers on 20 March 2025, suspending Governor Fubara and his lawmakers for alleged pipeline vandalism and political deadlock, citizens were assured that decisive, new stewardship would follow.
Instead, the Senate committee’s findings show that only 15 per cent of the budget reflects initiatives authorised since Mr Ibas assumed office.
In effect, the “new” budget carries forward unfinished business from the Fubara era—a budget some argue facilitated unregularised expenditures in the first quarter, totalling nearly 4 per cent below projected ₦1.4 trillion revenue for 2025.
Where’s the Accountability?
This near‑wholesale carryover undermines the government’s claim that emergency rule was necessary to protect public finances. If the original drafts survived intact, what new checks and balances has the sole administrator imposed? Critics argue that the move represents a cynical bid to secure Fubara’s political legacy while deflecting scrutiny from contentious spending decisions made in early 2025.
LPensions, Projects and Political Theatre
In a bid to placate pensioners, Mr Ibas has requested a supplementary ₦50 billion to settle outstanding gratuities—a proposal the Senate has vowed to consider.
Meanwhile, over 70 per cent of the ₦1.48 trillion is earmarked for capital projects, a commendable focus on infrastructure but one that rings hollow if oversight remains lax. Ultimately, true development demands transparent budgeting, not political theatre.
Lessons from History
This is Nigeria’s first state of emergency in over a decade; the last, under President Goodluck Jonathan in 2013, targeted insurgency‑racked northern states without suspending elected governors.
The Rivers debacle, by contrast, has immobilised accountability structures just as they were meant to be strengthened.
As the Senate pledges rigorous tracking of disbursements, Rivers citizens are left to wonder whether the emergency rule was about safeguarding democracy—or entrenching a blueprint from a government now on ice.
Either way, the heavy price tag of ₦1.48 trillion demands a clear answer.
“Governance is not just about roads and infrastructure. It’s also about ensuring those who have served the state receive their due,” Senator Opeyemi Bamidele reminded Nigerians—yet paradoxically, the very document he endorses was penned before his committee’s emergency mandate began.
Report by Atlantic Post writer Kalada Jumbo.
