Rotimi Amaechi was characterised as a disgruntled politician on Saturday by Reno Omokri, a former assistant to former President Goodluck Jonathan.
In a post on social media on Saturday, Omokri said that the former governor of Rivers had hoped that, in the wake of the Chicago State University certificate scandal involving President Bola Tinubu, the Supreme Court would declare him to be the president.
According to OBASANJONEWS24, Tinubu was selected as the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate for the 2023 election, and Amaechi finished second in that race.
According to Omokri, an American news source, Rotimi Amaechi, the former governor of Rivers state chosen by the Supreme Court, stated on Friday, October 27, 2023, “Nigerians don’t react to anything.” Have any politicians assured you that they are not liars?
“I am praying for you (Nigerians) every day that you should continue to commit suicide so that by the time I wake up one day, all of you have died so that I can now reap the benefits of your death,” he said, going on to accuse Nigerians of being cowards.
This is not the first time that Mr. Amaechi has spoken in such a casual manner. I published the #AmaechiTaoes in 2019, in which he attacked his boss, President Buhari, at the time, calling him a weak leader and implying that Nigerians were cowards for tolerating anything he did. It is a pattern of Amaechi’s thoughtless speech.
Amaechi’s strategy is well known to those who comprehend how he was chosen by the Supreme Court to lead Rivers State as its governor on October 25, 2007. Even though Amaechi was not on the ballot, the votes he received belonged to the PDP, and since he was disqualified, the Supreme Court decided that Celestine Omehia was not the legitimate candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party. As a result, “In the eyes of the law, the appellant (Amaechi) remains the candidate of the PDP and is deemed to have won the election and should be so sworn in immediately.”
In 2023, Amaechi hoped for the same miracle. He anticipated that the Chicago certificate issue would prevent President Bola Tinubu from running for office, according to the Supreme Court. Having finished second in the All Progressives Congress presidential primaries, he intended to petition the court to inherit Tinubu’s votes from February 25, 2023, in the same way that he did Omehia’s votes. And the reason for his present attitude is his annoyance that it did not occur.
Rotimi Amaechi is merely hurting. Both in Rivers and in the All Progressives Congress primary, he was unsuccessful. Both the People’s Democratic Party and his own party do not trust him. He is essentially done.
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To believe that Nigerians are cowards would be foolish. The Nigerian Civil War demonstrated that the Igbo, Yoruba, and Hausa people are not cowards.
Minority tribes of Nigeria, in addition to the country’s major ethnic groups, do not lack bravery. On February 23, 1966, during the 12-day revolution that resulted in the brief Niger Delta Republic, the Ijaw engaged in combat with the Nigerian Army.
Under Presidents Obasanjo and Yar’adua, they carried out that revolution once more, severely damaging Nigeria’s oil sector until forcing President Yar’adua to hold talks with them and announce the Niger Delta Amnesty programme.
And because of our creek system, the Itsekiris, my people, never lost their guerrilla battle against the British, leading them to designate a succession of Itsekiris lords as Governors of the Benin River.
Furthermore, no one can claim that our cousins, the Binis, are cowards. Their battle with the British in 1897 is evidence of that.
The struggle for dominance among tribes is the one factor that causes wars and civil unrest most frequently throughout Africa. Whether it was the Hutu and Tutsi of Rwanda, the Tigray War in Ethiopia, the many battles in the Mano River region of West Africa, or Jonas Savimbi oh UNITAS and Eduardo dos Santos of the MPLA, it was the fundamental cause of many civil wars.
We should thus be grateful for what the Yoruba accomplished following the annulment of the June 12, 1993, presidential election by the junta commanded by General Ibrahim Babangida. They used discernment. As Rotimi Amaechi stated, having the ability to adjust to changing circumstances is not cowardice.
Nigerians have learned from their mistakes and realise that fighting is pointless when it comes to politicians such as Rotimi Amaechi, a plump man who has never skipped a meal. There must be a strong justification for going to war if we do. And we must have used up all of our chances for a nonviolent conclusion.
Nigeria’s democratic system is functional. The Court is functional. Indeed, the Executive has its problems, and the Legislature has its chops. However, we can and will deal with their excesses without starting a civil war or launching another #EndSARS in order to appease Amaechi, provided that we have free elections every four years.
