Honestly, from what I saw online and what people in Nigeria have been saying, things in Rivers State looked really intense before Tinubu even jumped in. There were major power struggles, and everyone was kind of choosing sides. The governor, Fubara, was even suspended, and it looked like there was a real risk of total chaos or maybe even some kind of breakdown where basic stuff like government and law just stopped working.

I've got a cousin who lives over there. He said roads got blocked by protests, and everyone seemed on edge about what was coming next. It sounded way more out of control than usual political drama. That’s probably why folks were talking about a possible state of emergency. No one wanted to see the place just fall apart in public.

So, while a lot of people now debate whether Tinubu’s decision was right or too much, even opponents mostly admit the state was seriously unstable. Something had to be done, and well, that’s why Tinubu stepped up the way he did — though exactly how he did it is where all the fighting and opinions come in.