Former Minister of Transportation and ex-Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, has announced his resignation from the All Progressives Congress (APC), declaring that Nigeria is in ruins and that the ruling party, aided by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), is working to subvert the next general elections.
Speaking in Abuja on Wednesday during the unveiling of the interim leadership of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Amaechi didn’t mince words about the country’s worsening economic and political crisis, describing Nigeria as “completely destroyed.”
He cited the rising cost of living, widespread hunger, and INEC’s alleged role in electoral manipulation as part of the reasons he is walking away from a party he helped bring to power.
“Nigeria is completely destroyed. People can’t eat. People can’t buy food. There’s no money to buy food. Everything is gone. Inflation is at its peak. And the federal government is busy going around trying to hijack the election. INEC is helping them to hijack the election,” he said.
Amaechi disclosed that his exit from the APC became official on Tuesday night. According to him, he had long warned the party to stop inviting him to meetings, insisting he wanted nothing more to do with its operations. “I left APC last night. I never attended one meeting. Last time they invited me, I warned them. I said, if you invite me to any meeting anymore… In fact, I was surprised that I wasn’t even expelled because I warned them in writing, don’t even invite me to any meeting. You can’t be in a club where majority of people are stealing and you don’t say anything,” he explained.
In a direct swipe at Tinubu, the former minister revealed that he had never supported Tinubu’s candidacy and maintained his doubts about the president’s leadership capacity. “I have never believed that Tinubu is a material to govern the country, I have never, because now, people want Buhari to come back. What happens in Nigeria is that when a new government takes over, it becomes worse than the previous government that makes people say let the previous government come back,” Amaechi said.
He criticized the worsening naira-dollar exchange rate as symbolic of Tinubu’s failure, saying: “People are asking for Buhari because things were better during Buhari’s administration. Dollar was I think ₦460 or five hundred and something now a dollar is one thousand five hundred and eighty, that is more than one hundred percent.”
Asked if the deteriorating exchange rate was part of a larger policy shift by the administration, Amaechi responded: “Whether it’s a deliberate government policy or not, any government that does not take into consideration the people you are governing is not a policy. President Tinubu said he is not here to make Nigerians happy.”
When questioned about whether his political actions were driven by ambition, he simply said: “I have the right to be ambitious, I am not over ambitious.”
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