Nigeria’s transport minister, Rotimi Amaechi, has been heard in an audio recording to be expressing shocking pessimistic views about Nigeria and the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, whose re-election bid he leads.
The recording was shared with PREMIUM TIMES by Phrank Shaibu, a spokesperson for the Atiku Abubakar campaign.
Mr Abubakar, billionaire former vice-president, of the Peoples Democratic Party, is the main challenger of Mr Buhari, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, in next month’s presidential election.
The recording contains a portrayal of Mr Buhari as a dismal failure who has been unable to meet the expectations of various segments of the society, ending with a dismissal of Nigeria as a never-going-to-change hopeless nation.
The transcript of the recording reads: “These are not things you publish ooo. If you publish them, you will never sit with me any day.
“Three years of Buhari oo, everybody is crying, crying…pressmen are crying, farmers are crying, workers are crying, politicians are crying, students are crying, three years oo! “The rate of poverty is very high. The people are hungry. Nigeria will never change!”
PREMIUM TIMES has not independently verified the recording. The claims, particularly regarding expectations, expressed in the recording may be correct. Government’s own official information shows Mr Buhari has presided over a worsening national job situation, with the unemployment rate standing at 23.1 per cent by the third quarter of 2018 up from 18.8 per cent per cent by the end of 2017. However, government officials argue jobs are not dropping but that it is the number of people entering the working age bracket that By 2018, Nigeria has overtaken China and is only behind India, arguably, with the highest number of extremely poor people within one national territory.
In an earlier recording also shared by the Atiku campaign, Mr Amaechi appeared to be describing Mr Buhari as a leader that does not listen and care. According to the recording: “The president does not listen to anybody. He doesn’t care. You can write what you want to write. The president doesn’t care. Does he read? He will read, he will laugh. He will say ‘come, come and see, they are abusing me here’. “In fact, there was one case of somebody in Onitsha, a trader in Onitsha who couldn’t sell his goats during Sallah. And I was with Oga on the plane and the man was busy abusing Buhari. He said, ‘Amaechi, come, what is my business with Onitsha goat seller?’”
When contacted, David Iyofor, the spokesperson for Mr Amaechi, said the minister’s team was still reviewing the recording and needed more time to do so before commenting on the matter.
Meanwhile, Mr Shaibu said the leaked tape has shown that even the president’s appointees lacked confidence in his ability to transform the country. He said, “The President should just quit honourably instead of wasting taxpayers monies on a failed reelection bid. “The truth is that the other day, the President confessed that the economy had collapsed under his watch.
“On another occasion, the wife confessed to the fact that, the cabal and not her dearest husband, President Buhari was in-charge of the country and now, the Director General Of his re-election campaign has confessed to the lack of capacity of President Buhari and the dismal failure of his administration. “Truth is, the President has established a record of failures which probably no other President would ever equal or erase. Mrs Aishat Buhari was partially correct when she stated that two people are preventing her husband from performing well. With this audio tape, if the two don’t include her husband then she is not completely being truthful.”
It is not the first time a minister would appear to be expressing no confidence in the leadership of Mr Buhari in a leaked recording. Former minister for women affairs, Aisha Alhassan, was in a recording – which he admitted – saying she preferred Mr Abubakar to Mr Buhari as president from 2019.
Tinubu using Premium times to play lido with Amaechi head trying to paint him black because of tomorrow is Buhari's campaign inauguration which Amaechi will lead Same thing Tinubu did to Okorocha and Amosun because of his 2023 ambition
PDP Vice presidential Candidate, His Excellency Mr Peter Obi at the ongoing #MGBIDI2019 organized by The Lord's Chosen Charismatic Revival Movement in IMO State.
Together let's Get Nigeria Working Again. #LGNWA #VOTEPDP
I trust the INEC chairman for now, for him to resist APC pressures on fill in candidates in Zamfara after they failed electoral laws, they resisted those planning to buy uncollected PVCs, He moved Buhari's cousin out of INEC situation to welfare after her role in manipulating Osun election, he insisted no use of manual register or incident forms, I believe he will resist their pressure, APC are trying all their best to make sure 2019 is rigged, after what they saw in Osun, if not for Iyiola Omisore that came for their rescue, 2019 general election will be a different ball game, not state election fg will deploy battalion of Soldiers, police officers and what have you to a particular state, 2019 is general.
Ganduri: A regiin take on your regional politics. How about you do you andblet others do theirs. The South west is and will never be the King maker. All you chest beating is down to your wish that Buhari should rig the election. You didnt vote OBJ in 1999, He emerged. You didnt vote PDP in 2007 the won. just cos the major players had problem with the GEJ admin, and you were at the right place then all of a sudden the South West are the champion king makers. Lol. why all this panic post and naratives? The Middle belt, South soutb and East have closed ranks, the North East are also aticulating. I hope by the time they subject you folks back to your amala regiinal politics, you will remember all this bragging?
Don't mind the foool, he always reasoning through his anus, Yoruba voting became relevant just 2015, last presidential election highest APc got from west was Lagos 792,460 votes, being a cosmopolitan state, its combined efforts of all tribes of APC supporters in Lagos, typical Yoruba state like Oyo APC got 528,620 votes below what PDP got from Anambra, and Oyo was the highest state after Lagos, other typical Yoruba States were below 300,000, check the table below they are lowest in collection of PVC, east the fool called traders top them in PVC collection
shachris02: 1. Increasing Poverty and hardship in the country. Under Buhari's watch, Nigeria has grown to be the Poorest nation in the world. Whereas poverty is decreasing everywhere else in the world, it is growing in leaps and bounds in Nigeria. Many Nigerians can barely afford a decent 2 square meal a day.
2. Rising Unemployment. Nigeria's unemployment rate currently stands a whooping 37% ranking one of the highest in the world. Whereas our youthful population is growing, unemployment is building up gradually. What this means in essence is that in the coming years, we would have a huge number of youths doing nothing. This is dangerous for any economy. No wonder there's high rate of youths indulging in dastardly acts such as Yahoo Yahoo and money rituals including stealing of pants. 3. Rising Levels of Insecurity: Every where you look in Nigeria there are stories of people getting killed unnecessarily almost on a daily basis. From the Fulani bandits in the middle belts to boko harm in the north east. States like zamfara, kaduna, benue, kogi, Plateau have been hot beds for indiscriminate killing most especially by fulani bandits and this is growing everyday with no hope in sight.
4. Lack of Empathy for Middle Belt: It took Buhari months to speak about the benue killings. Buhari has done practically nothing to help the situation in those middle belts states. The only statement we got from him is for them to endure the killings till they are able to donate their lands for grazing reserves. What nerve!
5. Frolicking with Corruption. The story of how buhari is the chieftain of integrity international has been laced by the fact that's he's been frolicking with persons that are openly known to be corrupt. Persons like Ganduje that's been caught of tape collecting huge amounts of dollars as bribe, persons like Maina that stole billions in pension fund, persons like Babachir that's been implicated in collecting millions to cut grass, Tinubu a known drug lord, Amaechi that's never held any job in his life aside politics yet throws dollars around as if they are papers, Emani , Arthur eze to mention a few.
6. Over Confidence: Buhari has many Yes men around him singing his praises that he's feeling quite so over confident and out of touch with reality. This is the same thing that happened to Ambode. Many Nigerians have silently decided to deal with Buhari at the pools. You would never find them discussing this as Buhari has many praise singers that are ready to retort if they do. Buhari is in for a shocker is 2019 and he would never know it till it's over.
7. Insensitivity to the plight of the Average Nigerians: Nigerians are going through one of the worst times in the nations history; and we've never heard from our president all through. When was the last time Buhari had a media chat with the people? When was the last time Buhari commiserated with anyone or any state in person? When was the last time Buhari actually visited the sight of any Boko haram/fulani bandit attack? We only get to hear from our president when he travels abroad.
8. Nepotism and Empathy toward the cause of the Fulani herdsmen. It is no news that Buhari is openly sympathetic to the fulani herdsmen. He's the number one patron of Miyatti Allah. He has never openly condemned fulani herdsmen, being fulani himself.
Talking about Nepotism, its a well know fact that more than 80% of Buharis appointments has gone to the North.....more than 70% of those to Fulanis and muslims.
9. No sense of Direction. Up and until now, APC can not state exactly what their economic agenda is. is it Power? Deregulation? Diversification? Infrastructure? Nigerians feel lost and most of use feel they are governing by chance. No sense of direction whatsoever.
10. Age. Buhari is an old man. Before this new buhari, the old buhari was looking so shriveled that many feared he might just drop one day and die. Nigeria needs a more vibrant leader and not someone that's been in power for over 4 decades.
Racoon: The battle is on.Kano will be a different scenario in 2019.Have anyone noted that the APC as a party have never reacted to any of the PDP Kano rallies as they have been doing to others?
Check below just one local government, imagine how it will look like when PDP will hold presidential campaign in Kano
Lalasticlala please help us move this to front page, those boasting earlier that APC will win Akwa Ibom earlier has gone hiding since last night after their campaign flopped
tribalmall: Are Igbos siding with Kickback taking Obi or not ? At lest he confessed he took kickback with his own mouth n this is exactly what Ganduje did or if you care to highlight the difference btw the money Obi confessed he too from contractors n the dollar Ganduje collected from contractors pls be our guess.
I do not have time for Igbo double standard and foolish senseless talk about other tribes in Nigeria while they foolishly refuse to castigate similar offense from their own.
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Otondo, 2019 is about two brothers, not Igbo. PDP taking over Kano
Former President Of Nigeria chief Olusegun Obasanjo and Vice presidential Candidate of the PDP, His Excellency, Mr. Peter Obi today at 2018 Ukpor/Mbazulike Amaechi day in Anambra State
Politics › More Pictures Of PDP Presidential Rally Today In Niger State by BeautifulMind2(op): 7:45pm On Jan 09, 2019
