₦airaland Forum

Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi yesterday
said he would have been hounded out of the
country by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-
led government, had the All Progressives
Congress (APC) lost the election.
Amaechi spoke at the public presentation of the
compilation of his administration’s achievements
in Lagos. The book “Dynamics of Change: The
Amaechi Years” is edited by Dr Chidi Amuta and
Dr Yemi Ogunbiyi.
Amaechi said he knew that he would be in trouble
if change did not happen in Nigeria and was
prepared to make the sacrifices necessary to
make it happen.
“I knew I was going to be in trouble. Anything
that would cause that change not to take place, I
was ready to make that sacrifice. The federal
government sent out a signal that if they won
nobody should let me out of Nigeria from any
airport. One day Asiwaju got angry with me. He
was very angry. I went to his house with Mallam
Nasir El-Rufai and knelt down, saying ‘please
let’s not disagree, let’s win first and then we can
disagree’.”
“I lost my passport in Ghana and went to the
High Commission. They gave me a certificate but
the Ambassador was given a query for doing so. I
later applied for a passport and they gave me
green, not red. Now they have given it to me –
two weeks ago,” Amaechi said.
The governor said while his battle with President
Goodluck Jonathan lasted, many of his friends
either abandoned or took care not to be seen
with him in public. He said he was mostly
preoccupied with bringing change to Nigeria and
not about what to get from the government.
“I told Asiwaju that what is important is to make
a history of the first civilian coup in Nigeria when
your children and grandchildren read the history
with your name as one of the people who helped
bring about change in Nigeria.
“I said, let us focus on the victory. I remember
the day of the convention, there were so many
intrigues, there will be convention, there won’t be
convention, I said my leader, if we don’t do the
convention we are finished, the press will say APC
cannot hold a convention, lead us now, there
must be convention and election. So, he turned to
me and said look for Tunde (Fashola), let us go.”
The event which was well-attended by chieftains
of the APC was a time of tributes and eulogies for
Amaechi by his friends and colleagues. Some of
those present included: APC national leader,
Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, National Chairman,
Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, former interim
chairman, Chief Bisi Akande and Nobel laureate
Prof. Wole Soyinka.
There were also Governors Ibikunle Amosun
(Ogun), Abdulazeez Yari (Zamfara),
representatives of Kwara and Bauchi state
governors. governors-elect of Kaduna and Lagos
states, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai and Mr. Akinwunmi
Ambode.
Also there were Dr Dakuku Peterside, APC
governorship candidate in Rivers, Alabo Graham-
Douglas, Tonye Cole, former governors of Ekiti
State, Kayode Fayemi, Segun Oni and Niyi
Adebayo. Others are: Senator Olorunnimbe
Mamora, business mogul and Africa’s richest
man, Aliko Dangote, Bishop Hassan Mathew
Kukah (book reviewer), Justice George Oguntade,
National Women Leader, Hajia Ramatu Aliu,
National Secretary of the APC, Alhaji Mala Buni,
Senator Daisy Danjuma, Mr Jim Ovia and
Vanguard newspaper publisher Mr Sam Amuka-
Pemu.
Prof. Soyinka, who wrote the forward to the book
–Tyranny of Courage- described Amaechi as a
man of principle and strong conviction, who was
willing to stand by his belief at a great risk.
These qualities, he said made him to take
exceptions to his own personal rule not to write
any recommendations or forwards for books. He
also described Asiwaju Tinubu as the “architect
of change.”
Soyinka said: “The political atmosphere today,
whatever you call it, change or hope, or cautious
or careless hope, I recognise two individuals who
led the change. One of them I call him the
architect of that process, he is Ahmed Bola
Tinubu. The arrowhead of the charge that led to
the change is the man we are gathered here to
honour.”
Soyinka decried the incident that led to the
disbandment of the Nigerian Governors Forum
(NGF), praising Amaechi for standing up to his
colleagues for change.
“It is basic arithmetic fallacy of governance when
16 is said to be higher than 19, something is
fundamentally wrong. Governor Amaechi stood up
and challenged even his own colleagues saying,
let us change the orientation of the nation.
Somebody once said to me to tell the young man
that he was going to destroy himself that he
should slow down. Of course I didn’t deliver the
message.”
Bishop Kukah praised the editors of the book for
the insights and ability to document the giant
strides made by the Amaechi administration but
noted that the book fell short on the narratives
about the governor’s background and early days.
He also noted, some contradictory claims about
Amaechi’s days at the University of Port Harcourt
and student unionism days. Kukah also noted
that the book was almost silent about the era
when Amaechi was the Speaker of Rivers State
House of Assembly, a part he noted, prepared him
for the office of the governor. He recommended
the 251-page book, not for the bookshelves but
as a coffee table companion.
Justice Adolphus Karibi-Whyte was lavish in his
praise of Amaechi. “When I first met him,
everything about him gave me a promise of a
future leader, he respects age and status and
analysed situations properly. I was elated when
he asked me to be the chairman because he still
remembers the relationship,” he said.
Karib-Whyte said the governor was key in
bringing all the ethnic nationalities in Rivers
State, struggling for leadership together and
fostering peace in the state.
Mamora said Amaechi is a “great friend” and a
fellow former speaker, he also referred to him as
an “unusual governor who is simple, plain and
blunt to a fault and a combination of mettle, bold
and resolute.”

Surplus90:
So he turned to me and said look for Tunde (Fashola), let us go.

barnabasj:
"I knelt down for Tinubu begging him" Tinubu is now a god that a whole Governor of the Richest state in Nigeria will be submitted to.

Honestly Amaechi have lust his sense and value. No wonder they called him Judas

Sweetguy25:
So tinubu, you don't have fashola's number in your phone? You can't call Fashola through the phone and tell him to come?

Amaechi look at what you have turned yourself into - an errand boy for Tinubu and Buhari. All because you hate GEJ

barnabasj:
"I knelt down for Tinubu begging him" Tinubu is now a god that a whole Governor of the Richest state in Nigeria will be submitted to.

Honestly Amaechi have lust his sense and value. No wonder they called him Judas

Sweetguy25:
So tinubu, you don't have fashola's number in your phone? You can't call Fashola through the phone and tell him to come?

Amaechi look at what you have turned yourself into - an errand boy for Tinubu and Buhari, all because you hate GEJ.

You left your duty as a governor and turned yourself to an errand boy.
Just look at port Harcourt in the last four years, the city stinks, bad roads everywhere, dirt and garbage everywhere, traffic jams everywhere. And you're proud to call yourself a change agent? I no blame you.