By Ndubuisi Orji
Former Rivers State governor, Chibuike Amaechi, has decried the state of affairs in the polity, saying former Jigawa State governor, Sule Lamido, and he would have confronted President Bola Tinubu if they were still Governors.
Amaechi, who spoke in Abuja at the public presentation of Lamido’s autobiography, “Being My True Self”, said what is happening in politics in the country currently could not have happened when they were governors.
The former Rivers governor, who was a two-time chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum( NGF) had criticized the suspension of Rivers Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, by President Tinubu following an emergency rule in the state.
Amaechi recalled their days as governors, noting that they were radicals committed to the good of the country.
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According to him, “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, who served as Minister of Transport in the immediate past administration, while describing Lamido as a good ally, noted that they disagreed on whether to join the All Progressives Congress ( APC) or the Social Democratic Party ( PDP) when they opposed President Goodluck Jonathan’s reelection bid in 2015.
He said, “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.”