Rivers: Tinubu’s Hidden Obsession

You cannot tell who a man is until he is in power or empowered, but you can tell what a man could do if he is obsessed with power. For a man whose political mantra is “At all cost, Fight for it, grab it, snatch it and run with it”, Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu, once a ‘voice’ for democracy assumingly, now seems consumed by a dark urge, a craving for military control and dictatorship dressed in civilian cloth. His declaration of a state of emergency in Rivers State, ousting Governor Siminalayi Fubara, his deputy, and the state assembly to install Vice Admiral Ibokette Ibas (Retd.) as sole ruler, shows a man in admiration with dictatorial power. Add the National Broadcasting Commission’s April 9, 2025, ban on Eedris Abdulkareem’s song “Tell Your Papa,” Tinubu’s pattern emerges as a leader who silences dissent and bypasses law, steering Nigeria toward a past it fought to bury.

Tinubu’s emergency decree in Rivers is not mere policy but a love letter to military rule. Section 305 of the 1999 Constitution allows such steps only for dire crises like war, not the political spat or single stage-managed assumed pipeline blast he used as excuses. By suspending elected officials as he did, he has torn up Nigeria’s democratic contract. Handing Rivers to Ibas, a retired admiral, reeks of junta tactics, not governance, since no other person is qualified enough except a former “military khaki” wearer. When Ibas defied a Federal High Court on April 9, 2025, by appointing local government heads, Tinubu stayed silent as the national assembly, as if cheering lawlessness. This mirrors the 1980s under General Muhammadu Buhari, a Tinubu’s ally and a man he brought back to power whose decrees crushed elected voices, leaving Nigeria scarred. Tinubu’s choice of a military man to rule Rivers suggests more than pragmatism; it is a fetish for control, a nod to the jackboots he claims to reject, a claim that has become doubtful.

The NBC’s ban on Eedris Abdulkareem’s “Tell Your Papa” screams of a man who cannot stand scrutiny. The song, a 2025 cry about Nigeria’s hunger and death, asks Seyi Tinubu, a man who is touring the northern states seen verbally exploding in arrogance, how his father is the best president Nigeria has ever had and will ever have to wake his father to reality: “Seyi, tell your papa country hard, tell your papa people dey die.” NBC banned it, citing “indecency” under Section 3.1.8 of its code. Indecent? No, it is too honest for Tinubu’s taste; to the regime, indecency is now whatever annoys the president and his cronies. Tinubu’s need to gag a musician betrays paranoia, a dictator’s reflex to mute truth. Nigeria’s past, like Fela Kuti’s 1977 persecution for “Zombie” by a military dictator and the same Idris “jaga jaga” in 2004 by the army cum civilian president shows Tinubu pattern, obsessed with his image, keeps swinging the censor’s hammer. Buhari’s 1983-1985 regime, which Tinubu admires, jailed critics and ruled by fiat. Tinubu’s emergency rule feels like a tribute, a civilian’s attempt to play general. The Nigerian Bar Association calls Rivers’ state a “constitutional breach,” but Tinubu lost in his power dream, ignores the warnings; the law has to take a back seat

The First Lady Oluremi Tinubu, who must be called “mother of all”, visited Delta State for her Renewed Hope Initiative, distributing kits to midwives in Asaba. When the event’s MC called her “everyone’s mother,” nursing students at the Delta State College of Nursing Sciences, Agbor, pushed back, singing, “Na your mama be this,” meaning “This is your mother, not ours.” A student, Osato Edobor, was handpicked to be used as a scapegoat to tell others never again to reject Tinubu’s wife, a mother to all Nigerians since they are all motherless, according to the needed response to the song, which the student refused to chant. The college provost, Evbodaghe Rita Ogonne, issued a March 27 query, accusing Edobor of a “malicious act” and threatening expulsion: you are not safe as far as you displease the regime; their apparatus will all come out to silence you. Tinubu’s allies, eager to shield his wife’s ego, tried to crush a young woman’s future for a song, a petty, dictatorial reflex. Oluremi called it “playful” after the backlash, but the initial punishment betrays Tinubu’s thin skin and love for obedience, reminiscent of military regimes that jailed poets for less

READ MORE: Hundeyin and Greenspan Win FOIA Suit as US Court Orders FBI, Other Federal Agencies To Release Unredacted Files on Tinubu’s Heroin Trafficking

Tinubu’s agents do not spare even the young. In March 2025, Raye, a National Youth Service Corps member, posted a TikTok video lamenting Nigeria’s economic hardship. With corps members’ N33,000 allowance dwarfed by soaring costs, Raye called Tinubu’s leadership “terrible.” NYSC officials swiftly threatened her and showed Tinubu’s intolerance for truth from a generation in which he had failed. Raye’s silencing mirrors the 1980s, when General Muhammadu Buhari, Tinubu’s mentor, locked up critics for speaking out. Tinubu’s obsession with control turns a corper’s plea into a crime, proving he would rather gag youth than fix their pain

In 2024, Tinubu’s forces roughed up protesters decrying economic pain, a sign he loathes dissent; over 200 underage children were charged with treason, detained for months, starved, maltreated, looking like Jews rescued from the gulags and death camps by Hitler in world war II. Tinubu’s fixation has been tried and buried before. In Nigeria, General Sani Abacha’s 1995 murder of Ken Saro-Wiwa in Rivers aimed to silence protest but brought sanctions and militancy. Rivers’ takeover is a spark in the Niger Delta’s tinderbox; past groups like MEND cost Nigeria billions by targeting oil. Tinubu’s military romance will likely invite that chaos again, even now that the suspended governor and House of Assembly may not be reinstated soon.

Tinubu’s obsession endangers Nigeria. Rivers, the oil hub, cannot afford his games. Goodluck Jonathan warned that this mess repels investors wary of Nigeria’s unrest. ECOWAS and the African Union watch as democracy fades in total silence, while the U.S., a key oil buyer, may rethink ties, as it did under Abacha. Is Tinubu a civilian Abacha? Does his moves calm Rivers or stoke a fire that could burn Nigeria’s economy and unity?

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Johnson Akor

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