Rotimi Amaechi, former governor of Rivers, says opposition parties can remove President Bola Tinubu from power in 2027.
Speaking on Saturday during an event organised to mark his 60th birthday anniversary, Amaechi said he met Tinubu before the 2023 presidential election and told him that he would not work or vote for him.
Amaechi said his decision not to back Tinubu’s presidential bid was based on “capacity” issue.
The former minister of transportation further said he would have pursued some of the policies of the present administration if he were president.
He added that the gains of the policies have, however, not trickled down to Nigerians because “the gains of those policies are in their private pockets”.
Amaechi said he does not mind submitting to the opposition to oust Tinubu as long as the interest of the nation is placed above individual interests.
“I met President Tinubu in Yola and I told him I would not work for you and I would not vote for you,” Amaechi said.
“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.”
AMAECHI: LEADERS DON’T CARE ABOUT NIGERIANS
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 only interested in amassing wealth.
He claimed that that there is a conspiracy among the elites to weaponise Nigerians with poverty.
“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,” Amaechi said.
“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 further said the insecurity issue in Nigeria is fuelled by poverty.
He said when he was governor, he doused security issues by ensuring salaries and contractors were paid.
“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.” (The cable)
