The trouble with Rivers’ politics is that it never whispers. It shouts, it jostles, it barges into the national stage like a restless masquerade. And now, with Governor Siminalayi Fubara stepping back into power after six months in political exile, the drumbeat is thunderous: will he cross to the ruling APC?
The invitation is loud and unapologetic. From Abuja to Port Harcourt, party officials are urging him to defect. They speak of opportunity, of leadership, of the chance to turn Rivers into an APC bastion before 2027. “Join us,” they sing, promising him the role of state party leader the moment he signs the papers.
But loyalty has its own chorus. The PDP insists that leaving would be a betrayal, a self-inflicted wound that could end his career. They remind him that he rode into Government House on their back, and that history is rarely kind to politicians who abandon the horse mid-race.
Behind the tug-of-war lies a deeper fracture: his feud with Nyesom Wike, the powerful predecessor turned FCT minister. Their quarrel once plunged Rivers into such turmoil that President Bola Tinubu declared emergency rule, suspending Fubara and placing the state under an administrator’s watch. That six-month freeze is now melting away.
As he returns, voices urge reconciliation. PDP leaders advise him to mend fences, govern with calm, and prove that loyalty can coexist with ambition. Yet the APC’s offer remains tantalising: a bigger tent, national backing, perhaps even a longer political life.
The decision is his, and it looms large. In the volatile theatre of Nigerian politics, defections are as common as rainfall. Still, this one feels weightier, charged with symbolism and consequence.
So will Fubara leap or linger? For now, Rivers waits.
