In my mind Roden is just a pawn. He is shrewd and good at business, but has little political experience, and was placed in power mainly because he was a suitable person; someone who can unify the Federation. He is probably not even aware of everything that has taken place behind the scenes.
According to
Paths They Chose, Foiritan appealed to the power-hungry Mentas Blaque and allowed him to be the head of the senate and the director of FIO at the
same time in exchange of support for his plan to counter Heth's incursion to Luminaire.
Roden and his shipyards were already
aligned with the Nationalists, so all the three major parties were behind him even before the arms industry nationalization episode, which made Roden to run for office and allowed Foiritan to focus on other things. Further support for this comes from the fact that the Senate passed the disenfranchisement bill
almost unanimously to make sure that he wins.
After his resignation, Foiritan went to Intaki to use his connections to put together a massive anti-Heth coalition. Now, the Federation is armed to teeth and probably has additional support from Ishukone and Intaki Syndicate. What happens next, no one knows.
I would guess that Roden will be the saviour in the eyes of the people, but that in reality he is just one piece in a greater scheme.