Imagine a gate usually meant for security, official pass-downs, and rigid protocol suddenly becoming a stage. A stage for drums, chants, banners.
It was mid-morning in Port Harcourt when the gates of the Government House became pulsing with color, with song, with expectation.
Thousands of loyalists — youth and elders, women and men, from all corners of Rivers State — arrived not with requests only but with a message: “We are here. The governor is ours.”
They didn’t storm the gate in anger. They came in joyous anticipation. They believed their leader, Governor Siminalayi Fubara, was returning after months of suspension under emergency rule, and today’s gathering was more than festival — it was political rebirth, loyalty made visible, power in flesh and voice.
The Events Unfold
Fubara’s core loyalists thronged the Government House gate in Port Harcourt to await his return. Supporters came from across all 23 local government areas, including former leaders of his political movements like Victor Oko-Jumbo.
There were fleet displays of solidarity: chants like “We have come to possess our possession,” dancers, waves of bright colors, elder statesmen and women, all gathered at the gate in hope and spectacle.
Their arrival followed the recent lifting of the six-month state of emergency that suspended the governor, his deputy, and the entire Rivers State House of Assembly.
The governor’s loyalists perceive the gate gathering as the beginning of his full reinstatement.
Why Some are Concerned
* Is this a volunteer show of love, or orchestrated political theater? Some critics argue that state resources or political machinery may have been mobilised.
* The risk of escalating chanting and loyalty demonstrations into conflict, especially if security actors misinterpret movement.
* If Fubara’s return remains delayed, this gathering could turn from celebration to protest — expectations rise as hope grows.
A Gate Is Just a Gate Until It Isn’t
A gate may seem trivial. But in Rivers State today, the Government House gate has become a signpost: of return, reclamation, and political identity.
The chants might fade; the colors might dim. But for those gathered, today’s presence was a claim — a demand — to not be ignored.
As the gates swing open for Fubara, the real test won’t be in the gates themselves but in what follows: whether governance, trust, and action move through them — or whether power remains symbolic.
