Chief Eric Nwibani, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Rivers state chapter, and secretary of the party’s caretaker committee, has said that Rotimi Amaechi, former minister of transportation, has lost more than 70% of his political followers in the state.
Nwibani stated that, in addition to losing his support base, Amaechi has also lost three election circles between 2015 and 2023, despite being a super minister and a very prominent member of former President Muhammadu Buhari’s kitchen cabinet, as well as the director general of Buhari’s presidential campaigns twice.
Chief Nwibani, in response to a statement attributed to the former Governor claiming that those who left him to work with the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, could not endure hunger, suggested that Amaechi should consider why generations of followers were leaving his political camp in droves rather than throwing tantrums.
Amaechi has lost more than 70% of his following. I am done working with Amaechi. Let me explain the type of leader Amaechi is. In 2019, 16 Rivers people were killed in a stampede during President Buhari’s presidential campaign rally at Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium.
He visited three families in Obio/Akpo and other LGAs, promising them through their leaders that he would do something for their deceased relatives. He did not turn up. That is the type of leader Amaechi is.
“He has carried bitterness for years. I heard him say he was planning to win the next election. How? You were a super minister who failed to win the previous election; will you be able to win an election now that you are out of government? Amaechi cannot claim that people working with Wike are hungry.
I’m not sure where he worked before joining politics. We know that he made money through government and politics. I know Victor Giadom isn’t hungry. I understand that Ojukaye Flag Amachree, Engr Sampson Ngerigbari, and many others are not starving people. I’m not sure what informed him of his notion that people currently working with Wike are hungry.
“Yes, Wike is a PDP man. But he is a Rivers son and is doing very as FCT minister working in the government of President Tinubu. We need to give him all the supports he deserves. You cannot run a party aground and lose three consecutive elections due to ineffective leadership qualities and expect people to still follow you.
Amaechi
Three good circles and you believe that those people will continue to follow you, it is not possible. “He left PDP in 2014 for APC, nobody threw stones at him, why is he carrying bitterness because he lost the election against President Tinubu in 2023!.