Recall that in June 2025, President Bola Tinubu personally wrote to the National Assembly, requesting approval for the Rivers State 2025 budget. Acting on this request, a joint session of the National Assembly comprising the Senate and the House of Representatives passed the budget proposal into law on July 21, 2025.
That budget became the legally binding appropriation for Rivers State and was implemented by the Sole Administrator, Vice Admiral Ibok Ete Ibas (rtd.), throughout the period of the state of emergency.
When Governor Siminalayi Fubara resumed office following the lifting of the emergency on September 18, 2025, he inherited the same budget, which remains the subsisting appropriation law governing the state.
It is important to note that Rivers State traditionally operates a 12-month budget cycle. However, the declaration of a state of emergency altered the normal timing. As a result, the budget only took effect from the date it was signed into law in July 2025 by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR, and is therefore scheduled to run up until July 2026.
Against this background, claims that Governor Fubara failed to present a 2026 budget to the Rivers State House of Assembly are misleading.
There is an existing and subsisting budget that commenced in July 2025 and will validly run through July 2026, in line with a one-year budget cycle.
The Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), which serves as the precursor and skeleton of any budget proposal, was also addressed. On January 2, the Rivers State Executive Council met and approved the MTEF, alongside a budgetary proposal of ₦1.87 trillion.
This decision was taken after the government reviewed what the Federal Government and the National Assembly had approved for the Sole Administrator, Vice Admiral Ibok Ete Ibas, during the emergency period.
This followed the nullification of the earlier ₦1.1 trillion budget proposal presented by Governor Fubara and passed by the Rt. Hon. Victor Oko-Jumbo-led Rivers State House of Assembly, as well as the annulment of the October 5, 2024 local government elections, by the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
Upon Governor Fubara’s return to office after the 6-month suspension occasioned by the unfortunate declaration of a state of emergency in Rivers State by Mr. President on Wednesday, March 18, 2025; the Rivers State House of Assembly requested the submission of a supplementary budget. The lawmakers proposed that it be merged with the budget earlier approved by the National Assembly during the state of emergency period.
However, the governor objected to this notion, explaining that a supplementary budget cannot be superimposed on an existing appropriation law already enacted and signed by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The 2025 Appropriation Act had been passed by the National Assembly and assented to by President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, making it superior to any other legislative action at the state level during that period.
From an economic standpoint, a supplementary budget is only justified when an existing budget has been substantially exhausted. In this case, the subsisting budget is still running and largely unexhausted.
As a professional accountant, Governor Fubara maintained that it would be imprudent and legally unsound to propose a supplementary budget under such circumstances.
The governor therefore made it clear that there was no need to present another budget, as doing so would amount to placing one law on top of an existing one which is still in force, and still running its full course in our new fiscal year. He further stated that the subsisting budget would continue beyond December, as the law permits a governor to spend for up to six months into a new fiscal year.
Based on these facts, it is incorrect to suggest that Governor Siminalayi Fubara failed in his constitutional responsibility by not presenting a new budget which in all intents and purposes would be a grave misnormer.
On the issue of commissioner nominations, it is also noteworthy that eight commissioners who were screened and confirmed by the Rt. Hon. Martin Chike Amaewhule-led Rivers State House of Assembly are currently serving and working with their governor.
In addition, the governor has recently appointed 5 Special Advisers – which does not require legislative screening by the RSHA – to bolster and strengthen this administration’s service delivery capabilities, efficiency and promptness.
This is a constitutionally guaranteed action in exercise of powers conferred on the governor by the extant provision of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) as the Chief Executive Officer of the State.
Jens Karibo Esq.,
A Public Policy Analyst writes from Port Harcourt
