Ayekooto Akindele
“Before I arrived at this, I discussed with great minds, trusted friends… and there was an election to choose one from 3 people. Rotimi Amaechi won the remaining 2 people with 3 votes… WHY AMAECHI??? AMAECHI had better personal choices to make had he wanted to play safe at the expense of Nigeria. He could have been a hypocrite like Odili, play cat and mouse game like Donald Duke, faded safely like Uduaghan and Imoke… he could have also gone thoroughly shameless like Omehia… Amaechi could have opted for senatorial position and kill the growing mind expansion of the APC. However, the choice he made was the deadliest and costliest. He was the most geographically uncomfortable leader of the APC.
Some that had better comfort in their zones like Babangida Aliyu and Sule Lamido cannot even leave the PDP despite their open confession of the PDP animalistic governance!!! Amaechi led the group that rejected Jonathan and PDP’s impunity and corruption. He was stoned in his state by the few noisy but FG backed wailers backed by a ministerial thug cum roguish governor. No SS leader can come out to oppose drunken Jonathan and his tyrannical hippopotamus wife. Elders in the SS kept quiet in the midst of awful and brutal oppression by Jonathan and his wicked wife.
The Commissioner of Police in his state will not see him or hear from him. His guards were recalled. Militants threatened him with death. Yet Amaechi was not perturbed! No one saw half of the molestation Amaechi and his followers saw!!! Rivers state official plane was grounded so as to halt his free movement. His foreign loan which he applied for to be use for infrastructures in his state was stopped by the roaring and tyrannical Jonathan government and his cheeky finance minister. No… Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi was not moved. Always full of smiles.
His followers were reportedly murdered by Wike’s thugs in the presence of the Joseph Mbu-led Police force… It was a risky venture following Amaechi in those times. Amaechi had no shoulder to lean on… Instead his shoulders became the only resting pillow for all his supporters.
Apart from Buhari, Tinubu… Rotimi Amaechi’s name is the only name you hear during the ‘cursing-laden-time’ at PDP campaigns. His life was obviously in danger. They boasted that after the election, Amaechi will be arrested, ridiculed and severely punished for daring to oppose and going against a fellow South South candidate in person of Goodluck Jonathan, whose notorious wife is from Okrika, Rivers State. What did he do??? He resisted Jonathan’s illegal transfer of Rivers State oil rich land to Bayelsa and worst of all, he supported Muhammadu Buhari right from the primaries to the secondary and even tertiary. Buhari was hated so much by the wailers in the South South.
Amaechi controlled APC was completely rigged out in the general election despite the large support Amaechi has in the State. Amaechi was completely ran out of town!!!! As we can see from the various court pronouncements, the PDP’s saliva house has been destroyed by dew. Amaechi, it was popularly believed would pick the Veepee ticket because of his efforts. He was not given… yet, he was not angry, he even became more supportive in the midst of mockery by the PDP. He took the post of Buhari Campaign DG and delivered gallantly.
We thought he would be SGF or Chief of Staff… he got none of that. Yet his commitment to CHANGE programme increased. He proved to friends and foes that personal interest is no interests… unlike those traitors in the Senate who stole what was not given to them… unlike Tom Ikimi who left when he lost the chairmanship post!!!!
Amaechi is rare… he is a great stabilizer… sacrificial lamb… and sustainer of good cause. He later became Minister for Transportation. I celebrate this fighter whose fate would’ve been better imagined had the APC lost. A man who would have lost more than anybody if APC lost. A man who stood gidigba in the midst of State reckless abuse of power. How more Tyrannical can we describe the last administration! The man who was deprived of his electoral victory because of CHANGE. A man who did not cause internal factions when it looked as if he was cheated on several occasions. A man on the side of peace, tranquility, love, unity and CHANGE. A Man whose trust is worth more than billions of others.
A man that is worthy to be called a FRIEND INDEED. The Man… The Lion… Uniter… who risked everything and dared every demon. I salute you sir, Rt-Hon Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, the Lion of the Delta of Niger!!!
