Politics, like warfare, rewards strategy, patience, and the ability to read the terrain long before the battle begins. On Nigeria’s evolving political chessboard, Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State appears to have taken a decisive step beyond emotional reactions into the realm of calculated political survival.
By choosing restraint over retaliation and strategy over noise, Fubara has effectively enrolled himself in the Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu School of Political Philosophy—a school where my leader, Rt. Hon. James Abiodun Faleke, is a professor; where silence is tactical, endurance is strength, and timing is everything.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s political journey teaches one enduring lesson: power is not seized through impulsive confrontation but secured via patience, coalition building, and mastery of political structures. Those who underestimate this philosophy often burn brightly but briefly; those who embrace it endure.
Faced with intense political pressure, provocations, and a highly charged atmosphere in Rivers State, Fubara, after six months of political tutelage, is resisting the temptation to engage in further open warfare. Instead, he has chosen calm, constitutionalism, and loyalty to democratic institutions—a posture that mirrors Tinubu’s time-tested approach to power politics.
In Nigerian politics, noise is often mistaken for strength. Yet history shows that the most effective politicians understand when to speak, when to act, and when to wait. Fubara’s recent crossover to the APC, the winning party, suggests a growing appreciation of this reality.
By refusing to escalate tensions and prioritizing governance over personal ego, he has positioned himself not as a political victim but as a statesman in training. This is not weakness; it is political maturity.
The Asiwaju school teaches that today’s storms are tomorrow’s stepping stones. If Fubara stays the course, disciplined, strategic, and institution focused, he may emerge not only intact but strengthened.
In politics, survival is victory. And for those who understand the Tinubu political doctrine, survival is only the beginning.
– Musa Asiru Bakare, member of APC and political analyst, writes from Lokoja, Kogi State.