● Former Transport Minister’s Public Rant Betrays His Frustration
● How The Lion of Ubima Transformed Into A Lizard
● Why He May Never Smell Public Office Again
In his twilight years, when his bones and name can no longer trigger the jolt of his faded repute, Rotimi Amaechi will look back at his life and conclude that it was one long, desperate struggle against his waning impotence.
His sudden descent jars his spirit; yesterday, it spurred his wild dash into treacherous rebellion; today, it spirits him into oblivion. Faced with his growing insignificance in the political run of play, the former Minister of Transport and Governor of Rivers, has grown even more desperate.
It’s never easy being a has-been. His body has become that of an old liar, and his most spontaneous transport on the corridors of power, his name, has impaired to calculated manoeuvrings and delayed and often non-existent deliveries.
It is no longer a question of self-esteem or pride, Rotimi Amaechi is finished – at least politically.
Bitter and desperate, he has resorted to juvenile tactics in protest against his sad fate. Some days ago, he lashed out and threw a tantrum at TheNiche’s public lecture in Lagos.
The news is not what he said at the public lecture but his reasons for restraining himself from commenting on political and governance-related matters.
Since he crashed out of the presidential nomination contest in the All Progressives Congress (APC), very little has come from the self-styled Lion of Ubima.
Speaking at the 2023 TheNiche Annual Lecture themed “Why We Stride and Slip: Leadership, Nationalism, and the Nigerian Condition,” where he was a special guest, Amaechi said Nigerians know most politicians are dishonest but they still go ahead to vote for them during elections.
“What is new to say, Nigerians don’t react to anything. Has any politician told you he is not a thief? Which politician told you he went to university, which politician told you she served in NYSC, and which politician told you he has his certificate?
“Nigerians know and still vote for them, so what is your problem? I say why should I speak when already there’s nothing new?
“Nigerians choose who to believe and who not to believe, Nigerians choose who to vote and who not to vote. Even if you come to a Nigerian man’s house and kill his mother, the father will continue his life. Nothing bothers you, nothing, so why should I waste my time?” Amaechi said.
The former governor of Rivers State also criticized a former Managing Director of the Nigeria Ports Authority, (NPA), Hadiza Usman, for allegedly putting out false narratives in her book titled: “Stepping on Toes: My Odyssey at the Nigerian Ports Authority.”
“The lies were too many. For instance, she claimed she was not invited by the panel. I even came with the memo of the president, where the president endorsed her removal,” the 58-year-old said.
“Count one is in the question of the fact that the panel says she is guilty; count two is due to the fact that a Managing Director of NPA with an N2.5m approval limit can approve N2.8b contract with no appropriation.”
Two years ago, then-President Muhammadu Buhari asked Hadiza Usman to step aside from her role while an Administrative Panel of Inquiry, headed by Rotimi Amaechi, investigated the management of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).
Amaechi insisted that Mrs Usman was guilty of the same crimes she was accusing him of and making concessions for the high and mighty in society.
“Why is that document not published because prominent Nigerians are involved? She gave waivers to prominent Nigerians, which she has no power to give and these are dollars accruable to Nigeria’s economy but she was bold enough to write a book or is it a pamphlet and Nigerians are following her, launching the book, so how will Nigeria move forward?
“But let’s wait until they bring the original copy because if I give you the photocopy, you will say it is fake. I will show you the original but I won’t allow you to read it because you would see the names of those prominent Nigerians that were indicted by the panel. I would rather read the areas that concern her and leave those prominent Nigerians, they didn’t look for my trouble.”
The former minister affirmed that Usman had been indicted by the panel and denied that he was purposefully behind her removal as the boss of the NPA.
His miseries are legion. Among other things, he is a lonely man. His name no longer opens doors in the Presidential Villa. And his voice excites no shivers in his birth land, Rivers State’s corridors of power. Amaechi finally understands that power is like a dead sea fruit; it is not until you achieve it that you discover it is empty.
Sadly, he shunned this wisdom of the ancients while he wielded power as Nigeria’s Minister of Transportation and as Governor of River State.
Like too many of his peers, Amaechi tasted power and became drunk with it. He stepped on toes and dared to duel men whose exploits and repute should instil fear in him, like Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who is now Nigeria’s President.
So obsessed was Amaechi with power that he plotted and vied to become Nigeria’s President, running against Tinubu and resigning from his privileged post as a federal minister in the cabinet of immediate past President Muhammadu Buhari.
Unfortunately, he failed to clinch the APC’s presidential ticket; ever since his political career has suffered a downward spiral. Ambition has failed Amaechi.
Power and patronage have deserted him and his sojourn in Nigeria’s political space has eventually amounted to nothing.
In the end, he discovered that the perks and thrills of the corridors of power are ephemeral. Outside the political office, it’s just void and emptiness awaiting a rootless and covetous soul like his.
There is no gainsaying that nothing mattered in the world to the former Rivers State governor than a shot at the presidency. His failure to secure the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential ticket, however, signalled the beginning of his end.
Since his loss at the APC presidential primaries, Amaechi has disappeared from the political scene. His travails began when he resigned his appointment as Minister of Transportation with the expectation that President Buhari would influence his emergence as APC’s presidential candidate and subsequently hand over power to him in May this year.
In his desperate bid to win Buhari’s support, Amaechi gifted Daura, the former president’s hometown with a tertiary institution, the Federal University of Transportation, a Premier Varsity committed to rail transportation.
When in February 2022, he was turbaned in Daura, he was sure that his attainment of the APC’s presidential ticket was a forgone conclusion. Amaechi believed the chieftaincy title was part of the plans to fast-track his political elevation and future emergence as Nigeria’s president. But he was clearly mistaken as he was beaten to the ticket by the incumbent President Tinubu.
Even though he came second in the primary, it was a distant outing. After the election, he complained of being “betrayed,” whatever that meant. Since then, he has completely been off the radar.
Having served as Speaker of Rivers State House of Assembly for eight years, governor of Rivers State for two terms and Minister of Transportation for seven years, Amaechi is considered one of the luckiest politicians in Nigeria.
But it appears the Ubima-born politician has gotten to the zenith of his political career and may soon be out of the political limelight, given developments in his political base.
To add to his woes of oblivion, Governor Nyesom Wike has silenced him and completely rendered him irrelevant in his own state. Anything he says is met with swift counter by Wike.
Indications of trouble for Amaechi’s political career have been the poaching of his loyalists by Governor Wike. Today, he has almost been stripped bare of his loyalists.
Amaechi, known for his characteristic bluntness, had suddenly retreated into his shell. He rarely grants interviews and suddenly appears to be camera shy. He also spoke less on public matters until his recent outburst at The Niche lecture.
