Fubara just fired his entire cabinet. Tinubu brokered the deal that made him do it.

Yesterday, Fubara dissolved the entire Rivers State Executive Council. Every commissioner. Every special adviser. Gone, effective immediately. Permanent secretaries are now running the state.

This is the third time President Tinubu has personally intervened in the Rivers political crisis. Each intervention follows the same pattern: Wike's allies in the Assembly threaten impeachment, Tinubu summons all sides to Abuja, a peace deal is announced, Fubara makes concessions. This time the concession is his entire cabinet.

The expected next step: Fubara sends a new list of nominees to the Wike-aligned Assembly for screening. Some of those nominees will be Wike loyalists. That is the deal.

What gets lost in the political theatre is this. Rivers State has been effectively ungoverned for the better part of two years. Roads don't get fixed during peace negotiations. Hospitals don't receive funding while commissioners are being fired and replaced. The people of Rivers State did not elect Tinubu to select their governor's cabinet. They elected Fubara.

When the federal centre can dissolve a state executive by proxy, the question isn't whether this peace deal holds. The question is what federalism actually means in Nigeria.