A former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has said he and a former Governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido, would have challenged President Bola Tinubu over the nation’s current state of affairs if they were still serving as governors.
The former governor of Rivers State stated this in Abuja on Tuesday at the public presentation of Lamido’s autobiography, ‘Being True to Myself’.
Amaechi, who is also a former Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum, said their era was marked by bold opposition and a commitment to holding the Federal Government accountable.
He said, “I asked you (Lamido) this morning, what is going on currently in the country, in Nigerian politics — would it have happened when we were governors? You said no. And the answer is no.
“We would have confronted the government, confronted the president. That’s how radical you were. That’s how our Governors Forum operated. That’s how determined we were to change things.”
Amaechi also reflected on his political relationship with Lamido, noting that they were allies during their time in government.
The former minister, however, said their paths diverged over strategy in opposing then-President Goodluck Jonathan.
“We were quite good friends in government. We had our bad times when we disagreed. I made the mistake of assuming he was as radical as I was. So, he was one of the governors I clung to when it came to radical decisions.
“The last one before we broke ranks was when we all agreed to go against President Jonathan. We formed a committee of governors and others. At the end of the day, he went to find a new party, the SDP. We said, ‘If we go to the SDP, we will lose the election. Let’s hang on to this one called the APC.’ He disagreed and left us. That’s where we parted ways,” he said.
