Former Vice President of Nigeria and 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has strongly condemned the declaration of a state of emergency in Rivers State, describing it as a politically motivated move and an act of bad faith.
In his Facebook post on Tuesday, Atiku accused President Bola Tinubu of being a “vested partisan actor” in the ongoing political turmoil in Rivers, alleging that the president’s failure to prevent the crisis was deliberate.
“Anyone paying attention to the unfolding crisis knows that Bola Tinubu has been a vested partisan actor in the political turmoil engulfing Rivers. His blatant refusal — or calculated negligence — in preventing this escalation is nothing short of disgraceful,” Atiku said.
The former vice president further blamed the Tinubu-led administration for the security breaches that resulted in the destruction of national infrastructure in Rivers State, insisting that the responsibility rests solely on the president.
“Beyond the political scheming in Rivers, the brazen security breaches that led to the condemnable destruction of national infrastructure in the state land squarely on the President’s desk. Tinubu cannot evade responsibility for the chaos his administration has either enabled or failed to prevent,” he stated.
Atiku lamented that the crisis has thrown the Niger Delta region back into violent unrest, undoing the peace efforts of the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. He described the situation as an “unforgivable failure” and a reversal of years of progress in the region.
“It is an unforgivable failure that under Tinubu’s watch, the Niger Delta has been thrown back into an era of violent unrest and instability — undoing the hard-won peace secured by the late President Umaru Yar’Adua. Years of progress have been recklessly erased in pursuit of selfish political calculations,” Atiku asserted.
He warned that punishing the people of Rivers State due to political power struggles between Governor Siminalayi Fubara and Tinubu’s allies in the federal government amounts to an “assault on democracy” and must be condemned.
“If federal infrastructure in Rivers has been compromised, the President bears full responsibility. Punishing the people of Rivers State just to serve the political gamesmanship between the governor and Tinubu’s enablers in the federal government is nothing less than an assault on democracy and must be condemned in the strongest terms,” he averred.
