Former Governor of Bayelsa State, Senator Seriake Dickson, has congratulated former Minister of Transportation and Governor of Rivers State, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, on his 60th birthday anniversary, but he has cautioned Nigerians against trusting the opposition coalition being put together by the likes of Amaechi, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, and former Kaduna State Governor, Malam Nasir el Rufai.
His words: “Remember, this was how you people collaborated to remove a good government.
“Eleven years later, you people are here again, discussing collaboration. I say to Nigerians ‘shine your eyes.”
Dickson was referring how Atiku, Amaechi, former Hhouse of Representatives Speaker and Sokoto State Governor, Mr. Minutes Tambuwal, among others, abruptly broke away from the ruling People Democratic Party (PDP) ruling government to form the New PDP, and later moved to the All Progressives Congress (APC) to oust former President Goodluck Jonathan from power.
Amaechi, at the Saturday event disclosed that he met President Bola Tinubu in Yola, Adamawa State, before the 2023 general election, and told him that he won’t work with him.
Atiku Abubakar also accused the President Tinubu-led government of deliberately using poverty as a political weapon, claiming that economic hardship was being manipulated to control and suppress the population.
el-Rufai at the occasion queried the current leadership structure in Nigeria, claiming that the country has been taken over by urban bandits.
Recall that a few days earlier on Amaechi’s birthday, President Bola Tinubu, had eulogised him. He wrote through his spokesman, Mr. Bayo Onanuga: “President Bola Tinubu rejoices with Mr Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, a prominent politician and former Minister of Transportation, on his 60th birthday on May 27.
“The President highlights Amaechi’s invaluable contributions to Rivers State as a former speaker and two-term governor, saying he dedicatedly served the state.
During his tenure, the former governor was also Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum.
“He served as Minister of Transportation in President Muhammadu Buhari’s cabinet for eight years.
“President Tinubu prays for more years and God’s grace for the former minister and wishes him well in his political career.”
But at his 60th birthday public lecture with the theme: ‘Weaponisation of Poverty as Means of Underdevelopment: As Case Study of Nigeria,’ Amaechi said it was not about the political party as people had insinuated but about capacity.
“I met President Tinubu in Yola and I told him I will not work for you and I will not vote for you. I did not vote for Tinubu. I told him in advance before the election,” Amaechi said.
The former governor of Rivers State added: “I am saying this because of people who feel that I do not work for PDP or APC. I had already told Tinubu in advance and why I said that was because of the issue of capacity.”
According to him, “the current government and their agencies and who work with them, they are not even afraid. You see the kind of houses they are building. If they are not afraid, I am ashamed of them because they have no name. In fact, they say, ‘who did name help?”
The former transportation minister, while lamenting the inconsistencies in the Tinubu-led government, asked what the administration has done with the money that accrued from subsidy removal.
“The government said it has stopped the payment of about N5 trillion in fuel subsidy, the question is: ‘What did they do with the money?’ If you had put it back into the economy, the issue of poverty would have been reduced.”
Amaechi further stated that the issue of insecurity and poverty were major problems in the country and that when he was governor of Rivers State, he noticed that the increase in crime rate was a result of a lack of money in circulation.
“When I was governor of Rivers State, I told my Commissioner of Finance; he is here. What did I tell you? I said, go and raise money, pay contractors, pay salary, pay money.
“And once you pay, insecurity will go away. So, it’s about poverty. It’s about poverty. But currently, everybody wants to amass wealth and the major problem with Nigerians is that they don’t know how to protest.
“It’s only during elections that politicians begin to plan in the minds of Nigerians that they are either Christians or Muslims, playing ethnicity cards instead of capacity-building.
“They came up with a Muslim-Muslim ticket and where has that led us to? They should have equally come up with a Muslim-Muslim market. Hunger knows no one whether you are a Muslim or a Christian. I always say, let’s put the country first in all we do,” Amaechi said.
Also, speaking at the event, Atiku accused the President Tinubu-led government of deliberately using poverty as a political weapon.
He said the current government was not living up to expectations but was using poverty as a weapon to hold Nigerians to ransom.
On why he is joining the coalition to unseat Tinubu, Atiku said, “You may call me a conspirator; you may call me anything, and that is why we are in this alliance to make sure we don’t allow them to continue weaponising poverty.
“Of course, one of our star conspirators is Governor Rotimi Amaechi. Therefore, we are here to wish you many happy returns of the day.
“And we will continue to conspire with you to make sure we minimise poverty and we don’t use state machinery to weaponise poverty. I thank you very much,” Atiku said
On his part, a former governor of Kaduna State, Mallam el Rufai has stated the country has been taken over by urban bandits.
el Rufai claimed that Nigeria is in its biggest trouble since 1914 and, “that is why we are together working and conspiring to build a coalition to take Nigeria back on track because it is off-track.
“Nigeria is in the biggest trouble since 1914. It has turned to this level because we have allowed bandits, not the ones in the bushes but the ones in the urban areas called the urban bandits to take over leadership,” he said.
el Rufai further maintained: “I believe that the problem that we have, which I think Governor Babangida referred to, is that we just get incompetent people and we hand over leadership to them. Most of them don’t really know what to do. They just know how to grab power but don’t know what to do with it.
“Nigerians must stand up and vote for leaders that have the competence, capability, capacity, and commitment to move the country forward,” he added.
● Additional reports by ThisDay
