Ezekiel Awojide, Abuja
Former Governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi, on Saturday, said he told President Bola Tinubu before the 2023 general elections that he won’t work for his emergency.
He said he told the President his mind in Yola because he believed that the President wouldn’t be a good leader.
Amaechi, who was speaking at the public lecture to mark his 60th birthday in Abuja, said the capacity he saw in the former governor of Lagos showed he could not lead the nation.
He said, “I met the President in Yola before the election, and I told him I wasn’t going to work for him, and I said so before the election.
“I was convinced about the issue of capacity. So, it isn’t a new thing. I told him so in Yola.”
Amaechi, however, did not tell the audience what the response of President Tinubu was when he spoke with him.
He said the opposition must come together to vote out the current leaders, saying while people were blaming former President Muhammadu Buhari, Tinubu, who took over from him, is worse in capacity.
He said, “Nigerians are where we are because we don’t do much.
” Let the opposition come together and work together and take over.”
Also speaking at the event, a former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, described Amaechi as a chief conspirator.
The former vice president said he believed in the capacity of Amaechi and that with him and the others, Nigerians would vote out President Tinubu.
Atiku was responding to a former Governor of Bayelsa State, Senator Seriake Dickson, who described those who gathered at the event as conspirators.
Dickson said Amaechi and others conspired to sack Goodluck Jonathan, whose government was described by the opposition as clueless then.
The former governor said it was tragic that 11 years after the removal of Jonathan, the clamour for good governance was still popular on the lips of the conspirators.
“But the only advice I have now for those of you who are professional conspirators is to shine your eyes well.
“This time, shine your eyes. You did something in 2015 and claimed you were sending a clueless government away, thinking you would improve things.
“But eleven years later, here are you all. As professional conspirators, please shine your eyes this time around.”
He said he worked with Amaechi when the latter was a governor, saying the former governor of Rivers State invested in security, education, infrastructure, and others.
In his speech, a former Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, said he worked with the celebrant, and they used to quarrel a lot.
He said both of them had their last quarrel during the last All Progressives Congress presidential primaries.
A former Chief of Army Staff, General Tukur Buratai (retd), said the present government unleashed poverty on Nigerians.
He said while former regimes were doing so gradually, he said the government of President Tinubu decided to make Nigerians poor once.
Among those at the event were Prince Uche Secondus, Liyel Imoke, Paulen Tallen and Babangida Aliyu.
