By Obunike Ohaegbu (writing from his village in Anambra State)

Let me be clear from the outset: I have not an atom of sympathy for Siminialayi Fubara, Governor of Rivers State, for the humiliation he has endured or for the manner in which he has allowed himself to be publicly diminished. Sympathy is not the issue here. Democracy is.

When you choose to deal with despicable political characters like Nyesom Wike, you have only two options—two, and only two:

First, submit wholly and entirely to the dictatorship. Move metaphorically into the boys’ quarters; seek permission before every decision; ask approval before every phone call; surrender the soul of the state and its institutions to one man’s whims.

Second, say no—firmly and finally. Assert the enormity of the constitutional powers vested in you as governor. Draw a bright line. There is no halfway house. No monkeying around. No enye ndi ebea, enye ndi ebea. Politics abhors ambiguity; bullies feast on it.

Governor Fubara’s style—hesitant, conciliatory, half-measured—has invited the very crisis now threatening Rivers State. That criticism stands. But it is not the governor who should be sacrificed on the altar of an unprecedented constitutional atrocity.

What is unfolding in Rivers State is a macabre dance of shame that, if consummated, would wound Nigeria’s democracy far deeper than it would wound any individual officeholder. The reported scheme—impeach the governor and deputy, swear in the Speaker as governor, elevate the deputy speaker to speaker for a few days, then install him as deputy governor—is not politics. It is a constitutional abomination.

The Rivers State House of Assembly exists to legislate, not to stage-coup an elected executive. The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 is unambiguous on how a governor is elected: by the people, through the ballot. There is no backdoor route through legislative musical chairs. None. Never.

To attempt to foist a governor on a state by legislative gymnastics is not merely condemnable—it must be condemned by all who care about democratic order. If such a precedent stands, no governor anywhere in Nigeria is safe from a cabal of ambitious legislators armed with procedural tricks and political godfathers.

This is not about liking Fubara. I do not. This is not about defending weakness. I am not. This is about drawing a red line around democracy itself.

If the Speaker and his collaborators succeed, they will have demonstrated that elections are optional, mandates are provisional, and constitutions are suggestions. That path leads nowhere but to chaos. Those who would treat the legislature as a ladder to executive usurpation are threats to democracy and should never be allowed a seat in any democratic setting again. Recall them. Bar them. Let history remember them for what they attempted—and let the law deal with them accordingly.

Today it is Rivers State. Tomorrow it could be any state. When democracy bleeds, it rarely bleeds alone.