The Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Amaechi, says he has no regrets whatsoever in working with President Muhammadu Buhari to throw ex-President Goodluck Jonathan out of the Presidential Villa in 2015.
Amaechi who is battling for the All Progressives Congress (APC) 2023 presidential ticket has been saying that many Nigerian politicians do not understand the concept of loyalty.
According to him, “loyalty is not when you are not chosen, you become disloyal, loyalty means you follow the man that leads you that you have surrendered to his leadership.
‘’If you don’t follow, it means you are not loyal, you are only benefitting from the man politically and economically. The day he’s not able to give you that economic reality, is the day you become disloyal.’’
Storming Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital in continuation of his nationwide consultation drive, he took advantage of the 2022 Press Freedom Day celebration organised by the State Council of Nigeria Union of Journalists with the theme Journalism Under Surveillance to explain why he dumped Jonathan.
At the event which took place on Tuesday, the former Rivers State Governor (2007-2015) declared that though many labeled him a betrayer for not standing with Jonathan, a fellow Niger Deltan, he said his support for Buhari was for the survival of Nigeria.
He claimed that there were no strings attached to the support he gave Buhari, adding, “I did not give him any conditions.”
Ameachi, who also pointed out that Nigeria is broke, accused the Jonathan administration of wasting about $68 billion that the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo left behind.
The APC chief who is stoutly seeking President Buhari’s support as the preferred presidential aspirant, claimed that the Buhari administration inherited a paltry $2.5 billion from the Jonathan administration.
According to him, until Nigerians begin to hold every politician and officeholder responsible the country will not go forward
Amaechi who was the special guest of honour at the event, declared that this is the time for Nigerians to vote for the right people and journalists have a responsibility to present all the candidates before the electorates to make a right choice.
The minister confessed that why the elites are agitating for restructuring “is because there is nothing to share. Nigeria is broke.”
“What worries me is the survival of Nigeria. I am worried to the extent that I begin to wonder if Nigerians know what the problem is’’, lamented Amaechi.
While averring that the problem of Nigeria is not the poor man but the elites, which include journalists, he boasted that he has been in government back to back for the past 23 years without a scandal, that is why no journalist can blackmail him.
“I have no scandal’’, Amaechi declared, while acknowledging that there are good and bad journalists, some bad ones blackmail people to the extent that their victims have to pay.
Before now at a consultative meeting with executives, delegates and other party faithful at the Rivers State APC secretariat on Friday, he indicated that in his bid to become the president of Nigeria which he is thoroughly qualified for, he is neither desperate nor disloyal.
“Let me tell you something about loyalty. In 2007, we were in a meeting and somebody asked me if Dr. Peter Odili (former Governor of Rivers State) says you will not run for the office of governor, what will you do?
‘’I said I will surrender and support whoever he brings. We fought the battle for me to be Governor because Dr. Odili called me and said ‘go to court,’ if not we had met as a group and said we would stand by his choice. But he called me and said ‘…go to court.’
“I am a very loyal person, and those who are disloyal, I wish them well, those who want to do whatever they want to do, I wish them well. The opportunity will be given to everybody, we will run this presidential election, we will run, and I am loyal to the President and I am loyal to the party.
‘’If the party says it is me, thank God. If the party says it is not me, whoever the party chooses, I will support. If the Party and President chooses anybody, I will support the person, if the party chooses me, I will be glad and say thank God’’, Amaechi said.
