Former Governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi, says members of the opposition parties can team up to remove President Bola Tinubu from power in 2027.
While speaking at an event to celebrate his 60th birthday, Amaechi, who served as Minister of Transport in the Buhari administration, said he met Tinubu before the 2023 presidential election and told him that he would not work or vote for him and that his decision was based on a “capacity” issue.
“I met President Tinubu in Yola and I told him I would not work for you and I would not vote for you. Why I’m saying this is because some people in Rivers state have been saying ‘he didn’t work for APC, he didn’t support Tinubu’. I told him in advance before the election…because I was convinced that there was an issue of capacity.
Some of us here who raise the issue of capacity are also the ones who vote on ethnic and religious basis or who spoil innocent or uneducated people who are poor to vote for people for ethnic or religious reasons. That’s why we are here.
For us to position, if you want us to remove the man in power, we can remove him from this power. We want to submit to the opposition if the opposition can lead us out of this problem. And for the opposition to lead us out of this problem, we must agree to submit ourselves to the interests of the nation first before the interests of ourselves.”
Speaking to the theme of the event, “Weaponisation of poverty as a means of underdevelopment: A case study of Nigeria”, Amaechi said Nigerian leaders do not care about the citizens, but are only interested in amassing wealth. According to him, no Nigerian leader cares for the poor and vulnerable.
“Let me tell you. No Nigerian leader cares for the poor, because they know that Nigerians can do nothing to them once they are in power. When Nigerians protested, the president announced an increase in the price of fuel because they know you cannot do anything.
It’s a conspiracy of the elite. We don’t care for you; no Nigerian leader cares for you. And the reason is because you all do nothing. You protested, at the end of the protest, the president increased price of fuel because you’ll do nothing.
The state is weaponising you by stealing the money they should have given you.
At a time, we were paying close to N4-5 trillion on oil subsidy, so they’ve stopped. Where is the 4-5 trillion naira? If they dump it in the economy, you would not be crying.
It is a country of sharing money.”
Amaechi opined that insecurity in Nigeria is largely fueled by poverty, which has been weaponised.
“Insecurity is 99 per cent poverty. Insecurity is increasing in Nigeria because there is hunger. When I was the governor, when there was increase in insecurity, I knew that there was no money in the system so I directed my commissioner for finance to release money, pay salaries then insecurity will reduce. So it’s about poverty.”
It is when they come to elections, they will tell you. Now you have a Muslim-Muslim ticket. Let the Muslim-Muslim market come out now. It’s time. We are all hungry. All of us are. If you are not hungry, I am.
The current government and their agencies, they’re not even afraid. If you see the kind of houses they’re building.”
